Wow, I couldn’t get enough of this supernatural YA mystery!
Four people go missing during the course of a single night, the only apparent connection among them being that each is either a student or a teacher at Palmetto High School. Nora’s best friend is one of the vanished. But Becca has left clues for Nora, as if she knew she was about to be gone. The clues all lead back to the goddess game, a local childhood tradition based on urban legend. But what if it’s actually more than a game? And what if the thing called goddess is actually something much darker?
I found Nora to be a refreshing main POV character, and in general I appreciate how the author writes teens. I liked the fact that Nora’s friendship with Becca was complicated. I did balk a bit at the style of prose (for example, I recall a line that went something like: “The wind tasted spiky and wild.”) But that didn’t stop me from having great fun reading the story! It’s deliciously spooky, intriguing, mysterious, and emotional, with just a splash of romance. Wonderful!
This is a sapphic romance where the monster falls in love with a woman in a family of monster hunters, told from the POV of the monster. It is GRISLY, full of body horror, but also rather charming and sweet. It tackles so much, including issues in regards to healthy relationships. It touches on autonomy, consent, and working through trauma; love, sexuality (and asexuality), and diverse feelings toward begetting and raising offspring. These things are masterfully woven into a story that is complete with a(n) (anti)hero, truly awful villains, romance, harrowing fights, and many things besides. This book may churn your stomach at times, but it is also guaranteed to warm the cockles of any fantasy-reader’s heart and/or egg sac (that’s a little monster humor there, you’ll have to read the book to be in on the joke.)
I can honestly say I’ve never read anything else quite like this before, and am truly impressed!
“Blessed Virgin,” I whispered, even though I couldn’t even hear myself. “Why must you keep sending me innocent monsters?”
Another atmospheric, creepy, entertaining and delightful novella in the Sworn Soldier universe.
Sworn soldier Alex Easton has invited mycologist Eugenia Potter to stay at their father’s old hunting lodge in Gallacia to study the local mushrooms. They arrive to find the lodge in disarray, as it turns out the caretaker has recently died, although folk from the local village are hesitant to say what killed him – natural causes, or supernatural ones? What is superstition and folklore, and what is a very real threat? The story also touches on subjects such as war and PTSD.
Soldier’s heart doesn’t know the difference between terrible things. Fungus or cannon fire, it’s all just the war.
As always, Kingfisher’s writing made me laugh out loud at times, while also being perfectly spooky and evocative.
Miss Potter gave him a much warmer smile over her shoulder than I’d ever seen her give to anything that didn’t have spores.
This is Gothic writing at its finest, with a healthy sprinkling of Eastern European folktales, humor, and admirable messages. You love to see it!
“May we always have the choice to err on the side of mercy,” I said, lifting my wine.
This is a collection of the winning entries to a science fiction/fantasy/military novella contest, published by Cannon Publishing (J.F. Holmes), with writing from Kevin Harris, Sam Rob, Brian Gifford, SC Visel, K.M. Sykes, Tim Hanlon, Doug Goodall, J.P. Staszak, and John M. Campbell.
One of the authors is a coworker of mine, and an all around great person, and so I purchased this anthology to read his work, but the quality of writing across the board was great!
Each story here was either a 3 or 4 star read for me. If some of them were turned into longer works I might rate them even higher – the shorter form just doesn’t always work for me personally, and although these meet the word count for novellas, they just felt a bit more like short stories to me, giving readers a snapshot of life in the imagined worlds rather than a complete and fully fleshed-out story arc. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that format, I just find it’s harder to wow me with it.
There were two entries that I wound up skipping, but again it was a personal taste thing, not a quality thing. One had a very interesting premise but the entire story was the details of a single battle, and as a reader (and even while watching movies), I find nothing more boring than that. But obviously that’s me, and if you found yourself picking up this anthology because of the “military” bit in the description, then clearly there is a good chance you will feel differently!
But overall I really enjoyed these stories of monks, trolls, alien invasions, and dark magic. There is a lot of talent on display here, and these authors are worth keeping an eye on for sure. Bravo, everyone!
This engaging and original story is the first in a new fantasy series by the author of The Founders trilogy.
Buckle in and prepare yourself for some hefty worldbuilding, but part of what was admirable about this book was the fresh and unique setting. The Empire of Khanum is arranged like a succession of spoked wheels, with the the wealthiest citizens living in the center, the farthest from the outer ring’s sea walls. This is because every wet season, leviathans surface from the deep and try to breach the walls, destroying everything in their path. Branches of the military are dedicated to shoring up and defending the wall from the monstrous titans.
Some people who serve the empire are given grafts or suffusions, altering their abilities in specific ways. Our main character, Din, is an engraver; he has been cerebrally altered to have a perfect eidetic memory of everything he sees and hears. He carries little vials of different scents with him to use as cues to associate with particular memories. With this ability, he acts as the eyes and ears of the exceedingly eccentric, and brilliant, Ana, the investigator to whom he is newly apprenticed apprenticed.
“He’s new,” said Ana, “and big, and I think he lost his sense of humor in some tragic accident. But he helped me solve the Blas issue quick enough.” Then, simply, “He is good.”
The bulk of this novel focuses on a murder investigation Ana and Din undertake, one that winds up with far-reaching political implications. But there’s also a lot about the uncertainties of living in a world that is routinely under threat, not only by the titans of the sea, but also contagion, worms, and a host of other worries. It addresses the nature of civilization, and the question of whether people exist to serve their Empire, or vice versa.
One of the highlights of this book is the relationship and banter between Ana and Din (and a few other characters introduced during their investigative proceedings), which are charming and often downright hilarious. Ana is irreverent, Din is sincere.
“Just wish to comment, ma’am,” I said, “that, ah, I’ve no idea at all what’s going on anymore.”
And as if all of that wasn’t enough to secure a place for this book in my esteem, is also included great representation: of disability and neurodiversity, plus the minor romance included was queer.
“…if I hadn’t been the person that I was, then the alterations would not have been a success. It was my choice. I changed and became, I self-assembled. Just as you have done.”
I highly recommend this refreshing and entertaining tale of a murder mystery that unfolds in a new and interesting fantasy world, and I can’t wait to read about what Ana and Din get mixed up in next.
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.
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.
Here is my final 2023 reading bracket! (Hopefully I’m not jinxing it by posting it 3 days before the end of the year–I’m in the middle of reading a book that is fine but not a favorite, here’s to hoping I don’t finish it and then read something Earth shattering in the next 72 hours!)
I reconsidered and made a change since the last time I posted this bracket, but the final outcome would have been the same either way. I think this supports what I already knew: I love me some Gothic fantasy and science fiction, but not quite as much as I love some moving literary fiction!
Books included as some of my favorite reads of the year: “What Moves the Dead” by T. Kingfisher, “Trust” by Hernan Diaz, “Nettle & Bone” by T. Kingfisher, “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler, “A House with Good Bones” by T. Kingfisher, “Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries” by Heather Fawcett (I actually read an ARC of the sequel and enjoyed it even more, but decided not to count it as a 2023 favorite since it won’t be published until after the new year), “A Face Like Glass” by Frances Hardinge, “Chlorine” by Jade Song, “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, “If We Were Villains” by M. L. Rio, “North Woods” by Daniel Mason, and “The Seventh Bride” by T. Kingfisher.
I read a couple of lovely backlist books recently!
Rhea felt better. She was still going somewhere terrible, but she had a hedgehog, dammit.
I only just “discovered” Kingfisher this year and she is already an autobuy for me, and so I am now also working through her backlist. This book did not disappoint! I do feel like it took too long to get to the meat of the story–we know our main character is engaged against her wishes because her family cannot afford to say “no” to a Lord, but it takes quite some time for her to actually arrive at this nobleman’s home and learn exactly why being his bride is even so much more of a bummer than she feared. But this is one of the author’s earlier works, and I have not noticed the same issue with any of her other books.
Once we do learn about the other wives, some of whom are not…exactly…living human beings, as well as just what is at stake, this is a darkly fun adventure as the main character races to try to save herself and the others. The resolution was bit too hurried and neat IMO, but the characters and quests undertaken are just so imaginative and…well, darkly fun!
The narration also includes some of the author’s trademark wit and humor.
She clung to the tile, and eventually she stopped screaming, because it didn’t seem to be helping.
I am so excited to read more of her work!
Beautifully written queer retelling of Arthurian legend from the POV of the knight Percival. It’s magical, it’s moving, and it’s very human at its core…while also being, you know, not fully human. The book itself, the cover and the handful of illustrations inside, are lovely!
Jessica Crawford 