fiction

Book Review: THE HAUNTING OF MOSCOW HOUSE by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

| Jessica Crawford

The Haunting of Moscow House by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore is a 383 page standalone novel published by Berkley in 2024.

Genre:

Historical Fiction, Horror, Gothic, Romance

Opening Line:

If someone from their past should catch a glimpse of the formerly aristocratic Goliteva sisters, they would find two wraiths instead of countesses.

My Thoughts:

…the ghosts wouldn’t have returned unless there was space for them among the living…to let them and the past in, maybe in hope of healing it and themselves.

Irina and Lili were Russian countesses, but after the revolution they are “former people” living at the mercy of the Soviet regime. In 1921 they live in their family’s Moscow estate with their grandmother, aunt, and young cousins, although electricity has long since been shut off and they have had to resort to selling valuable family heirlooms in order to be able to feed themselves. A group of Bolsheviks arrive one day and commandeer their home, forcing the family to move into the attic. But then things start happening in the house, frightening things, and people start dying.

A good portion of this book is historical fiction about post-revolutionary Russia, the Cheka, the Bolsheviks, the American Relief Administration providing former aristocrats with jobs helping to ease the famine. There are two separate romances, which I’m not sure were really needed. The Gothic part is due to the fact that the main characters live in a derelict mansion where spooky things are happening. The horror and folklore parts were by far the most interesting to me.

There is no slow, creeping build up of suspense here, as right from the get go our sisters are confronted up close with footsteps from behind, a growl, an earsplitting screech, something skittering past in the dark, glowing red eyes, an implosion of air throwing them off balance as furniture crashes and things smash, culminating with the discovery of a dead body in their home–all in one go. Well, okay then, you can’t have imagined ALL of that, I guess there’s no questioning an actual haunting going on here, then! (Although actually, Irina sees dead acquaintances sporting their fatal wounds appear before her very eyes at her dining table, and “still doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but it’s growing harder and harder to refute its existence”…ya think?!)

The last, I don’t know, 15% or so of the book really ramps up on the horror and excitement, and I enjoyed it the most.

The rest I only felt lukewarm about. There were a couple of things about the writing that I didn’t love. It is understood, even mentioned, that except when speaking to the Americans, everyone is speaking Russian and we’re just reading about it in English. So why mix the two languages in some sentences, like with, “Your family, nothing but upyrs” (vampires)? If all of those words were actually delivered in Russian, why present it mostly in English with one word randomly in Russian? It seems just because the author wants to impress.

Also, we are treated to several diary entries, one of which reads, “‘What happened, Marie?’ I demanded in rapid French.” No one would write like that in a diary. It’s like me writing, “Dear Diary, ‘What would you boys like for breakfast?’ I cheerfully inquired this morning”.

There was also a parakeet in the book, a somewhat anthropomorphized one that was never caged but just flew around the estate wheresoever she wished, and I couldn’t help but think, “Gee, there must just be bird shit all over that house.”

For me this was a case of “Come for the horror, stay only for the horror”, because the romances and the historical fiction just weren’t that engaging to me. But that Domovoy sure was!

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Book Review: A LETTER TO THE LUMINOUS DEEP by Sylvie Cathrall

| Jessica Crawford

A Letter to the Luminous Deep: The Sunken Archive: Book One by Sylvie Cathrall is a 400 page novel published in 2024 by Orbit.

Genre:

Cozy Fantasy Romance/Mystery

Opening Line:

Dear Scholar Clel,

Instead of reading further, I hope you will return this letter to its envelope or, better yet, crumple it into an abstract shape that might look quite at home on a coral reef.

Synopsis:

A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of  A Marvellous Light  and  Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries.

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

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

A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery, piecing together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind—and learn what their siblings’ disappearance might mean for life as they know it.

Inspired, immersive, and full of heart, this charming epistolary tale is an adventure into the depths of a magical sea and the limits of the imagination from a marvelous debut voice.

My Thoughts:

This epistolary novel is told through a formal academic yet delightful tone, and is full of fantastical mystery and cozy romance. There is queer and disability representation, which is great. Although there is a romance, there is no steamy content, and there is no violence. The overall story was intriguing, but the execution was kind of a miss for me.

This book is comprised entirely of letters, journal entries, excerpts, reports and such. And while the writing is amusing and did in fact have me laughing out loud at times, every character has the exact same voice. Everyone sounds absolutely indistinguishable from anyone else in their manner of speech…er, writing. Though the ideas behind the story are enchanting, with this voice problem and the relatively slow and plodding pace, it wound up being a bit boring to get through. I had to talk myself into picking it back up to read on.

And then of course it doesn’t really end because it turns out it is the first book in a planned (series? duology?), a fact I was not aware of until after I had it in my hands.

I generally don’t like comps because they so often disappoint, as reading is such a personal and unique experience for each reader, but I personally agree with the comparison between this book and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, tone-wise, although I myself enjoyed the latter much more.

Epistolary, cozy academic romance, and underwater sci-fi/fantasy mystery are all terms that appeal to me, but in the end the detractions outweighed the delights for me, and I don’t think I will bother picking up the sequel.

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Book Review: THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore

| Jessica Crawford

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is a 496 page novel published by Riverhead Books in 2024.

Genre: Literary Mystery

Opening Line:

The bed is empty.

Synopsis:

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

My Thoughts:

This character-driven mystery was super engaging, managing to be both propulsive and emotionally resonant. It’s a missing persons mystery (two, actually, and the question of whether or not they’re related) with a generous helping of Rich People Behaving Badly. I don’t know that it really does anything that new or different, but a short way into reading this book I found I didn’t want to set it down, and finished it all in what I think was basically two sittings!

Rich people, thought Judy–she thought this then, and she thinks it now–generally become most enraged when they sense they’re about to be held accountable for their wrongs.

The story takes place on a wilderness preserve in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State, where characters have learned a healthy respect for the forest, its bounty as well as its dangers (AKA it’s features as well as it’s…bugs. Ha!) Chapters follow a rotation of several people: the missing teen’s bunkmate, their camp counselor, the investigator looking into her disappearance, and the mother of the missing children. The timeline also jumps back and forth from the 1950s, 1961, 1973, and the summer months of 1975, and the author makes this clear through the use of a header at the beginning of each chapter. I think Alice’s chapters hit me the hardest–how small her husband made her feel, the purity of her love for Bear.

Only with her son did she have a connection that existed outside any hierarchy of authority. She loved him plainly, without condition or complexity. And she believed he loved her the same way.

I’m going to miss being with these characters. I’d say there is an excellent chance this book will wind up as one of my top ten reads of the year!

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Book Review: A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER by Julia Seales

| Jessica Crawford

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales, is a 300+ page debut novel published in 2023 by Random House.

Genre:

Cozy mystery/historical fiction with a hint of romance and heaps of humor

Opening Line:

In the English countryside there was a small township called Swampshire, comprised of several lovely mansions and one disgusting swamp.

Synopsis:

When a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, a young lady takes on the decidedly improper role of detective in this action-packed debut comedy of manners and murder.

Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township–she is terrible at needlework, has absolutely no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters– beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbors a dark secret: She is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she’d be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever.

For her family’s sake, she’s vowed to put her obsession behind her. Because eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. If not, Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, will inherit the family’s estate, and they will be ruined or, even worse, forced to move to France. So Beatrice must be on her best behavior . . . which is made difficult when a disgraced yet alluring detective inexplicably shows up to the ball.

Beatrice is just holding things together when Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet. As a storm rages outside, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. Contending with competitive card games, tricky tonics, and Swampshire’s infamous squelch holes, Beatrice must rise above decorum and decency to pursue justice and her own desires–before anyone else is murdered.

My Thoughts:

This is a delightfully humorous Regency era locked room mystery! I agree with the comparison to the Bridgerton TV show crossed with an Agatha Christie novel, plus some hilarious ridiculousness added for flavor.

Miss Beatrice Steele and her sisters are expected to make advantageous marriages. There are very strict rules of decorum in Swampshire, England, and unfortunately, Beatrice’s interest in reading about murder investigations is quite explicitly forbidden in The Lady’s Guide to etiquette. She is therefore delighted when, one stormy evening at a ball at Stabmort Park, a guest is murdered. Here is her chance to conduct her own investigation while seeming helpful rather than morbid! The investigation is a twisty one, as it seems there are multiple members of Swampshire society hiding their own unseemly secrets.

This was a good mystery story, but the best part is the humor! From Mr. Steele’s constant silly pranks at the most inopportune times, to the frequent allusions to the fact that Beatrice’s youngest sister might be a werewolf without ever addressing it head on, and the explanation that no one else ever attended Miss Bolton’s theatrical productions because all of Swampshire happened to misplace their invitations in their fireplaces – this book was a hoot! The letters, article excerpts, play scripts and other little bits in between chapters are also a nice touch.

There is a bit of a romance burgeoning in this story. At the end of the book is a sneak peek at Book 2, which is the first I learned that this was going to be a series – this book could work perfectly well as a standalone, only the romance has not yet come to full fruition. I, for one, look forward to reading more about Beatrice and Inspector Vivek Drake simultaneously antagonizing and growing to care for one another as they solve crimes together in London.

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Book Review: THE SQUARE OF SEVENS by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

| Jessica Crawford

The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson is a twisty 528 page novel published in 2023 by Atria Books.

Genre:

Historical Fiction

Opening Line:

People like to say they seek the truth.

Synopsis:

An orphaned fortune teller in 18th-century England searches for answers about her long-dead mother and uncovers shocking secrets in this immersive and atmospheric saga perfect for fans of Sarah Waters and Sarah Perry.

Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique.

Raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendor of Bath, Red’s fortune-telling delights in high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?

The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads to grave danger.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, “the queen of modern Georgian literature” (Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora), has written a dazzling and Dickensian story of mystery and intrigue, with audacious twists and turns.

My Thoughts:

Three cheers and a round of applause for The Square of Sevens!

Our story takes place in eighteenth century England. Our main character is Red, a girl who travels the countryside with her father, the two of them telling fortunes for money and never staying in one place long. When her father falls ill, he asks a kind gentleman to take his daughter in after he dies, explaining that her mother was a lady and he wishes her to be raised as one as well. The man balks at first; surely there is family who can look after her? But the answer comes that her father has no family, and her mother’s family does not know she exists, and must never know.

Years later, sixteen year old Red is filled with curiosity to know who her mother was. She finds some hints in the belongings her father left behind, and comes to believe her mother was part of the wealthy De Lacy family of British high society. Her father probably only said what he did about it being dangerous for them to learn of her existence in order to persuade her guardian to take her into his care…right?

The De Lacys are a family at war with one another, in the midst of years of legal proceedings arguing who the rightful heir to the family fortune is. Red coming in and announcing herself as the late patriarch’s oldest grandchild is going to look like she is lying for the sake of putting in a claim of her own. So Red keeps her true identity hidden while infiltrating her own family, searching for proof to offer them in order for them to accept that she is actually one of them.

I enjoy family sagas and love court intrigue and machinations in my books, and this was a combination of these things. The story reaches from the fortune teller tents of county fairs to the grand estates of nobility. While attempting to uncover proof of her legitimacy as a De Lacy, Red digs up plenty of other dark family secrets as well. And I loved every minute of it!

AND THEN…I think my jaw literally dropped with the final reveal of many. I mean, this is historical fiction, not a psychological thriller – who would have expected such a twist?! Wowee!

I did notice that this book seemed very long. As I was enjoying it all along, this did not bother me, but I can definitely see how some readers might take issue with the length. As it is, this is hands down my top pick for books I have read so far this year!

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Book Review: SIPSWORTH by Simon Van Booy

| Jessica Crawford

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy is a 198 page book published by David R. Godine May 7, 2024.

Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction

Opening Line:

Helen Cartwright was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.

The Synopsis:

Over the course of two weeks in a small English town, a reclusive widow discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.”

Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey.

Sipsworth is a reminder that there can be second chances. No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes life has plans of its own. With profound compassion, Simon Van Booy illuminates not only a deep friendship forged between two lonely creatures, but the reverberations of goodness that ripple out from that unique bond.

My Thoughts:

Well, if this wasn’t the sweetest thing!

Helen Cartwright was raised in England, moved to Australia, spent sixty years there, many of them as a pediatric cardiologist. She lived an entire happy life there. But after her husband and her son both pass away, she moves back to her hometown in England and waits for her turn to die.

Walking helped, and she tried to go out every day, even when it poured. But life for her was finished…Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle⁠—as though even for death there is a queue.

But then Helen encounters a mouse.

At first she intends to get it out of her home, then to bring it to a wildlife rescue center…but then she finds purpose and meaning again in caring for this little creature, whom she names Sipsworth.

Helen is certain now that the creature in her sink must surely have been a child’s pet that outlived his use as a companion and was left to die. Except he is downstairs in a pie box. Not dying. And for the first time in many years, against her better judgement, neither is she.

She even tells her new companion that if he passes away before her to keep an eye out for her husband and son:

“I want you to let them know that I’m fine. I wasn’t for a long time, but I am now.”

Not only do her interactions with the mouse bring her joy, he also winds up bringing other people back into her life: the owner of the hardware store where she initially intends to buy mousetraps, the librarian from whom she checks out books on mouse care, and others.

“You know what your gift to the world is, Sipsworth?” Helen asks him. “It’s that you bring out the best in people.”

A heartwarming tale about a renewed lease on life, meaningful connections, and found family, this story made me tear up while simultaneously pasting a wide grin on my face. I think fans of A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman might enjoy this (although I hesitate to make comps because I personally always find them disappointing – like although books share some similarities, what I loved about the other book, such as the tone or voice, is not one of them). A real treasure!

(Side note: I was originally concerned about HOW MUCH TEA the people drink in this book – but the internet tells me that each cup only contains 26 mg of caffeine, so really 15 cups per day should be safe for consumption–which is good, because these characters are probably not far off from that!)

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Book Review: I CHEERFULLY REFUSE by Leif Enger

| Jessica Crawford

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger is a 336 hardcover standalone novel published April 2, 2024 by Grove Press.

Genres: Dystopian, Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Opening Line:

Here at the beginning it must be said the End was on everyone’s mind.

The Synopsis: Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician setting sail on Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, he seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. After encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he eventually lands to find an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, a crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. As his guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his wake.

My Thoughts:

This meditative dystopian story is brimming with gorgeous prose (and also a fair number of instances of turns of phrase I did not understand, prompting me to wonder if the author was not American–but it turns out that is not the case). In a bleak near future with collapsed infrastructure, a U.S. headed by a proudly illiterate president, and more and more people choosing to shuffle off this mortal coil in search of something better, Rainy and Lark have managed to make a happy life for themselves. When they let a young man board in their home, trouble follows right behind him. Rainy finds himself on the lam in a sailboat on a capricious Lake Superior. As he grieves for the life and love lost to him and attempts to evade those who would do him harm, he encounters numerous strange characters, along with a girl who needs him (and vice versa) more than either would like to admit.

It’s taken me all my life to learn protection is the promise you can’t make. It sounds absolute, and you mean it and believe it, but that vow is provisional and makeshift and no god ever lived who could keep it half the time.

But beyond the beautiful writing and the likable main character who was easy to root for, my overall feeling while reading this book was one of melancholy. So even though I appreciated the author’s skill with words (the main villain is described as a “relentless hellhound and necrotic Adonis”!), how glad am I that I set sail with Rainy on his journey? I’m still not sure myself. 3.75 stars

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AAPI Heritage Month Reading

| Jessica Crawford

It’s AAPI Heritage Month! Here is a stack of books by Asian American and Pacific Islander authors that I’ve greatly enjoyed, plus my current listen on audio (How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, which I am loving) and a book in my TBR I have on deck (A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal).

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is a science fiction epistolary novella featuring time travel and a queer romance, and was published in 2019. It won Hugo, Locus, Nebula, and Goodreads Choice awards. I read and rated it before I began the habit of writing up reviews on every book I read, so I don’t have my personal thoughts on this one, but I remember being pretty blown away by it. Here is the synopsis:

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.

Chlorine by Jade Song is a young adult contemporary fiction novel featuring body horror a la mermaid, published in 2023. I did post my thoughts on this book here in this blog before, but here they are again:

A classic trait of girlhood – forever confusing your desires with that of an older man’s.

Wow!

This book is a little bit like if you crossed The Vegetarian with The Art of Starving. It’s Young Adult contemporary fiction (LGBTQIA+) about Ren Yu, who has loved mermaids ever since she was a little girl. She took to the water right away herself and now swims competitively on her school’s cutthroat swim team. As one of the school’s top swimmers, she has a parasitic relationship with her touchy-feely, quick-to-anger coach, Jim. She and her teammates follow very specific dietary protocols that vacillate between pasta parties and restricting to snacking on small portions of protein throughout the day. Her father leaves to return home to China, she suffers a concussion that threatens her athletic career, and her family expects her to get into an Ivy League school.

Amidst all this stress from a human life catering to human sensibilities and values, Ren Yu experiences an epiphany: she’s not actually a human after all, but has always been a mermaid herself. She is not afraid to take matters into her own hands in order to complete the transformation for her to transcend to her true form.

Star athletes had to be delusional enough to think they could withstand physics and gravity enough to fly up onto the first-place podium and shine with the sheer force of athletic ability; there was nothing more bold than a star, after all, visible with the human naked eye despite its death eons ago.

There were only a couple of things I struggled with in this book. One was the author’s descriptions of being a menstruating woman. If someone’s periods were as Ren Yu’s are described, they should definitely tell their healthcare provider (although, over the course of this book, Ren Yu does learn to not trust in the competence of any medical professionals). And the fact that it took two hours for her mother to teach her how to insert a tampon? And the blood smeared all over the bathroom stall walls and her teammates hands? The trauma of an IUD insertion? I don’t know, maybe this author has just had vastly different experiences with these things than I have, but also I think Ren Yu was supposed to have extreme experiences to assist her in coming to the realization that being a mermaid would be vastly superior to being a human woman. One other part that made me want to gag was two characters getting freaky next to the bathroom where the guy just took a dump and now everything smells like his poop and he asks the girl, “Can you guess what I had to eat?” And then they commence to grind on each other and make out (barf!)

But besides those things, I thought this was a great novel about how the mind can attempt to deal with the pressures and traumas of being an adolescent human.

TW: body dysmorphia, sexual assault

Published in 2018, The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is another young adult contemporary fiction novel dealing with mental health, this time tied to the grieving process. Sadly, my Goodreads review of this one is basically saying that I forgot to write a review while the details were fresh in my mind, but I do remember that I LOVED this book. Here were my thoughts, such as I could recall at the time:

“Oh, I haven’t written a review for this yet? Well for now suffice it to say there are many haunting and lovely things in this story of a girl who loses her mother to depression, goes to Taiwan to meet her grandparents, and undergoes some fantastical experiences while under the influence of grief and insomnia.”

As mentioned above, I have yet to read A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal, but I have it in my physical TBR and plan to read it soon. For now all I can comment on is that gorgeous cover!

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo is historical fantasy based on Chinese folklore that just came out earlier this year. Again, I posed a review of this book on this blog previously, but in case you missed that, here it is:

An emotional and intriguing tale incorporating elements of Chinese folklore, presented as historical fiction with a side of magical realism.

Chapters alternate between two POVs. Snow’s chapters are told in first person past tense (presented as her diary entries), Bao’s in third person present. Both were equally fascinating, although I did at times take issue with being pulled from one storyline at a particularly good part to shift back to the other. But chapters were never super long, so you never have to wait long to switch back.

Snow is a fox, the kind that can take the form of a human. Once she planned on making the thousand-year journey, a morally refining spiritual pilgrimage, with her mate. But after the greed and cruelty of humans shatters their world, she sets out on a mission of vengeance instead.

Meanwhile, Bao is an older gentleman who has had the ability to hear when someone is lying ever since his childhood nanny prayed to a fox spirit for him. Using his talent, he has become a freelance investigator of sorts. When he is tasked with discovering the identity of a woman found frozen to death in an alleyway, he finds himself on a path that seems to be leading him ever-closer to the subject of a lifelong fixation of his: foxes.

I really liked the unique and fully fleshed characters in this book. The mythological elements added a very nice mysterious and enchanting touch (what is just superstition, and what is something more?). But what resonanted the most with me was the story of grief, and the changes people go through as they process it. I love how the Yangsze Choo’s novels always feature this beautiful mix of magical and moving.

This was a great book, but I think The Ghost Bride by this same author is probably my favorite of her works so far.

I am currently listening to How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu on audio. Published in 2022, it’s dystopian science fiction composed of interconnected stories about a near future that is all too believable. I am loving it, even if it is rather depressing so far! But since I haven’t finished it and written up final thoughts yet, I will just share the synopsis here:

Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter’s research, only to discover a virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost. The plague unleashed reshapes life on earth for generations. Yet even while struggling to counter this destructive force, humanity stubbornly persists in myriad moving and ever inventive ways.

Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.

Please feel free to share here some of your favorite AAPI authors and books!

Book Review: KING NYX by Kristen Bakis

| Jessica Crawford

King Nyx by Kristen Bakis is a 320 page hardcover standalone novel published February 27, 2024 by Liveright (W. W. Norton & Company).

Genres: Historical Fiction, Gothic, Mystery

Opening Line:

Last night I dreamed my husband came back.

“This woman cannot think, she feels.” So the novelist Theodore Dreiser once wrote about Anna Fort, wife of the crypto-scientist Charles Fort. It was this line that inspired author Kristen Bakis to write a story of Anna’s own, albeit a fictional one.

I had heard this book was a Gothic tale that was more about vibes than plot, and I supposed that is pretty much the case (there is certainly plot, but I do think I’d say the pacing is on the slower side). But there were a lot of other elements to this story that I was not expecting.

Anna’s husband writes about verified anomalies that science has failed to offer sufficient explanations for, and who then proposes his own rather outlandish theories. A wealthy recluse invites them to stay on his private island estate while Charles finishes writing his book. But all is not well on Prosper Island.

We learn a lot about Anna’s memories from before her marriage, at a time when she herself experienced something unexplainable and wound up having a mental break and spending time in a sanatorium. This history has her questioning when she can and cannot trust herself and her own thoughts and perceptions. She discovers that one can perform any number of mental gymnastics in order to keep one’s view of the world palatable.

Visitors to Prosper Island are made to quarantine in cabins in the woods for two weeks upon arrival, and it is here Anna and her husband meet another couple, a psychologist and his wife with an oddly antagonistic relationship, who are also guests of the eccentric Mr. Arkel. In fact, the story doesn’t actually arrive at the house itself until very near to the end, and then only briefly.

The story also includes: missing girls (pulled from the penal system and put into a school for domestic service), creepy automata (the most horrifying part of this book, IMO!), and a toy bird elevated to the status of deity. Oh, and several pet parakeets. I wasn’t expecting all of these elements, but they still wound up telling a decent Gothic mystery.

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