I had heard rumors that this sequel was even better than the first, and the people do not lie.
Not only is this sequel stronger than the first book (whI had heard rumors that this sequel was even better than the first, and the people do not lie.
Not only is this sequel stronger than the first book (which is so so rare) but it genuinely makes the first book better. What an amazing build off of its predecessor!
I mean, clearly the solution to improving a book is just adding a sentient forest that moves at will.
The characterization and chemistry was the only thing I felt somewhat lacking in the first book, but holy wow was it strong as hell in this one. This book, unlike the first, was multi-POV, and the characters we got to see be fleshed out in this book where just so unbelievably well characterized. Their development and histories and motivations were woven with such tact into the macro and micro of the narrative. And the romance in this one had me clutching my chest.
I think the thing about this book that improved the first, in particular, is the unraveling of the world-building and lore. There are so many truths and ideas set up in the first book that felt interesting but somewhat flat in the first that turned out to have great payoffs or subversions in this book, and those new shifts really helped move the story and the world and the stakes forward in really smart ways.
I was worried this finale would be hard to pull off but it was properly exciting and high energy and nail-biting, and the resolution was quite satisfying (I was very curious how Gillig would handle a sort of magical cure plotline, but I really felt this was tastefully done.)
CW: violence, illness, blood & gore, injury detail, dead bodies, death of father, poison, murder, death of sibling, sexual content, alcohol, child death (past), grief, mind control, domestic abuse, self harm (for magic)...more
A book that is my atmospheric soulmate: gothic, woodsy, dark fairytale vibes akin to Ava Reid or T. Kingfisher.
By far, the most interesting and well-A book that is my atmospheric soulmate: gothic, woodsy, dark fairytale vibes akin to Ava Reid or T. Kingfisher.
By far, the most interesting and well-executed part of this book is its magic system. Cards that work like magic spells built out of Faustian-esque bargains, and a taunting and corrupting magical mist that infects vulnerable inhabitants with a fever that gives them magical powers, it all felt incredibly thought out and well-integrated, as well as just properly intriguing.
I think my only critique is that the characters at times felt a bit indistinct and indistinguishable from romantasy archetypes. They're all incredibly interesting by proxy of their circumstance (and let me clarify, their circumstances make them VERY interesting as characters) but I feel like I wouldn't be able to recognize them if you plucked them out of the narrative at hand. But within the narrative, wow. I loved the whole idea of a girl having a monster in her head and it impacting the way she would navigate the world.
I think the biggest compliment I can give this book though is that I finished it and immediately picked up the sequel. Rachel Gillig, you had me hooked.
CW: violence, blood & gore, injury detail, illness, death of mother (past), mind control, child abandonment, self harm (for magic), alcohol, poison, death, sexual content...more
CW: violence, death, war, loss of loved one, human experimentation, torture, kidnapping, child abuse, blood & gore, injury detail, death of father RTC
CW: violence, death, war, loss of loved one, human experimentation, torture, kidnapping, child abuse, blood & gore, injury detail, death of father (on page), death of grandfather, pregnancy, alcohol...more
Celtic mythology meets Legally Blonde by way of a military fantasy adventure, with a unique balance of heart, grit, and camp in this lovable debut by Celtic mythology meets Legally Blonde by way of a military fantasy adventure, with a unique balance of heart, grit, and camp in this lovable debut by Cait Jacobs.
I had the privilege of reading an early draft of this book way back in 2022, and it captured my heart. It may combine a fascinating collection of ideas (Legally Blonde but make it a gritty military romantasy with knights, and also make it kind of a retelling of Celtic folklore?) that you wouldn't expect to go together, but Cait has poured so much care into the conversation of all of these elements from the silly musical references to the complex disability representation, and it really pays off in this heartfelt adventurous tale.
If you like diverse casts, fantasy adventures, women with swords (who also wear gorgeous dresses), found family, court politics, gritty action scenes, feet-kicking romance, and Legally Blonde (of course), I think you'll adore this book as much as I did....more
Arcane meets Upright Women Wanted for fans of Gideon the Ninth in this bloody, ferocious lesbian fantasy.
Y’all. I’m absolutely obsessed. This is dykeArcane meets Upright Women Wanted for fans of Gideon the Ninth in this bloody, ferocious lesbian fantasy.
Y’all. I’m absolutely obsessed. This is dyke required reading.
This book is not an easy one to describe. I’ve been sitting here starting out sentences and then deleting them, struggling to properly encapsulate the overflowing joy and excitement I have for this story. There’s just so much to try to hold in my hands at once from gripping action scenes to brilliant reveals to malleability of style.
I think the thing that’s really sticking with me though is that this book feels like an underdog. It’s not the cleanest or tightest book I’ve read in terms of balance or pacing by any means. In fact, I struggled through the book quite a bit at times. (Scenes that were short should have been long, scenes that were long should have been short, and once I put the book down, it was really tough to get back into the world and the rhythm of the writing.)
But. BUT. Its flaws provide a delicious texture that adds to the utter camp of it all. This book was nothing if not unbelievably ambitious and the difficult work of climbing to those heights shines through its pages. And, honestly, I kind of love that you can see Clarke’s blood, sweat, and tears in building this beast of a narrative leaking through. If it was too seamless or if it looked too easy, it would lose so much of its charm. It is complicated and smart but also weird and messy. It’s not so much a hidden gem, but an undiscovered labyrinth, sprawling and gritty and formidable.
I guess the best way to review this book is really to pitch it! So if you like: -badass butch book girlfriends -fighting capitalism -large casts of characters -complex world building -The Locked Tomb series -nonlinear storytelling -experimental prose -messy lesbian relationships -hopeful narratives then you should read Metal From Heaven. This book was built to be a niche–and sometimes bad but mostly epic–queer cult classic and I hope it finds its audience. It sure found a fan in me.
And THANK YOU to Erewhon for shipping me an ARC of this book across seas (even when I hadn't finished my other ARC from them) in exchange for an honest review.
CW: violence, blood & gore, sexual content, homophobia, death of parents, death of siblings, grief, loss of loved one, character death, gun violence, police brutality...more
a NEW pixie hollow story in 2025??? about the TRAGIC STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE BETWEEN QUEEN CLARION AND LORD MILORI??? by the one and only Allison Saft???a NEW pixie hollow story in 2025??? about the TRAGIC STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE BETWEEN QUEEN CLARION AND LORD MILORI??? by the one and only Allison Saft???? someone pinch me for real
Review: Currently drying my tears as I write this. Pixie Hollow has lived firmly in my heart for as long as I can remember, and it's been so healing and wonderful to revisit this world in my adulthood through the words of one of my favorite authors.
I can't say how this book will resonate for folks who didn't grow up on Disney Fairies, but for me, it was so perfectly full of nostalgia and magic, warming my heart utterly. The atmosphere was just right, I loved getting to visualize the whimsy and wonder of fairy life. Saft's writing is the perfect companion to a setting so lush and atmospheric, as her ability to craft such vivid environments and sensory experiences is what I truly love most about her writing. Her words gorgeously guide the reader through this abundantly imaginative world.
I didn't expect to cry so much at the romance, but yeah, wow, I did. My eyes were stinging as I tried to read the final pages. I knew what was to come, having seen the movies, but Saft brilliantly brought new life and emotion to the star-crossed tragedy of it all. The aching and yearning and mourning, the blurring of hope and loss, it all was so eloquently and painfully done. Seriously, ow.
This was a really wonderfully bittersweet (and again, painful, ow!) return to Neverland and Pixie Hollow. I hate to leave this world behind again, as Neverland is always a difficult place to turn away from, but this book is appropriately about using the love of the past as hope and strength for the future, so I guess I'll take my cues from Clarion and keep looking onward as I close the pages on a land I feel most at home.
Also, thank you Allison for writing lesbians into Pixie Hollow (and specifically a butch knight lesbian!!!!! OH MY GOD!?!?!). You're my absolute hero. ...more
I have a lot of friends who recommended this to me as a book they would compare to THE SIX DEATHS OF THE SAINT, and sadly, I think this comp really ruI have a lot of friends who recommended this to me as a book they would compare to THE SIX DEATHS OF THE SAINT, and sadly, I think this comp really ruined the book for me, because I have to disagree.
Though this is a twisty knight tale, the thing that works so well about THE SIX DEATHS OF THE SAINT is that it stretches the capacity of its format with brilliant tact. It's the triumph of telling an epic tale in a couple dozen pages. And I think this story is far from a mastery of format. In fact, it feels confined by its length.
I understand why my friends made this comp, and I think it'll help bring some of the right people to this story but it didn't work for me. But comp aside, let's talk about this book.
I hate when I have this opinion because it's such an annoying opinion to have, but I do really think this would work better as a long epic novel that combines this plot and whatever happens in the sequel. It was obvious from the get go that there would be some big twist about the narrator being unreliable, and so these 170 pages are really just spent in wait for that reveal. I would've been far more interested in a story that takes its time to set up this world and this character and her backstory beyond the here and now. As it stands, the payoff of the twist is weak, because the author gave me like 100+ pages to come up with theories of my own and nothing else to occupy my attention.
The world-building, the politics, and other goings-on are SO interesting but because of the urgency of the task at hand, feel irrelevant and tangental, so that the shifts beyond the task (especially towards the end) are disorienting and lack impact. There is so much to praise about this world. It does feel really lived in, and I have so many curiosities I'd love to dig into: the naming system of the knights, the history of hunting dragons, the viewpoints of magic, etc. And I think it's fine and good when worlds have details that go unexplored to focus on the direct plot, but I think time spent in this world-building would've actually much better aided the end of the narrative.
I think my favorite element is the epistolary entries about dragon hunting, and honestly I could have done with even more of them, especially if they aided the story more than they do (which isn't much at all, Bond could've really made use of these and hidden some lore elements and foreshadowing into those instead of just using them as ambiance).
I did overall enjoy my reading experience of this, and I think many people will too, but my expectations were just placed wayyyyy too high.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
CW: animal death, death, dead body, emesis, violence, alcohol, amputation, fire, hallucinations, body horror, blood & gore, self harm (for magic), child death (past)...more
A really nice follow up to A River Enchanted. I really enjoyed the shifts of focus to other parts of the world both physical and metaphysical, and theA really nice follow up to A River Enchanted. I really enjoyed the shifts of focus to other parts of the world both physical and metaphysical, and the fleshing out of its history and mythology.
Similarly to A River Enchanted, I found the distance covered by the characters a bit uneven, as most of the characters are just solving mysteries or saving folks while Torin is once again embarking on a trial of self-reflection that redefines his relationship to himself and the world around him and challenges every facet of his taught perspective.
Aside from that unevenness, however, I really enjoyed this one. I was immersed in the characters, the world, and the plot, and I'm definitely interested in reading more of Ross's work.
CW: drowning, blood, child death, illness, emesis, violence, pregnancy, death of parents (past), grief, dead body, imprisonment, poison, sexual content...more
I absolutely adore this series. Long novella series aren’t incredibly common, and this one is especially unique in that its installments function bothI absolutely adore this series. Long novella series aren’t incredibly common, and this one is especially unique in that its installments function both together and separately, allowing its readership to dip their toes into these stories one by one, enjoying the world on a scale both large and small.
To be honest, I had left the past couple books in this series feeling slightly lackluster. The first book, THE EMPRESS OF SALT AND FORTUNE, was a riveting and gorgeous story. The second one, WHEN THE TIGER CAME DOWN THE MOUNTAIN, contained such a wind of whimsy. But then the third book, IN THE RIVERLANDS, felt like Nghi Vo had already run out of story structures. The third book was a fun read and had lovely writing and characters, per usual, but honestly tried too hard to replicate the exact emotional arc and payoff of the first book, and fell short in that attempt. The fourth book, MAMMOTHS AT THE GATES, was better than the third in that it clearly was forging its own path, but it felt more like a separate reprieve from the other adventures. It lacked an impact that the initial two books had.
So when this fifth book came around, I didn’t have very high expectations. Don’t get me wrong, I was still excited for another installment, as I’ve definitely grown attached to this series regardless of its narrative accomplishments and was looking forward to reentering this world. But boy oh boy, Nghi Vo has found her footing again and we are so back, baby.
Nghi Vo brings the gothic into this installment of The Singing Hills, paying homage to classic stories like Bluebeard.
Though the structure of the pacing was still reminiscent to the other stories in this series, the use of information and lack-there-of was much more precise and complex than in the stories we’ve seen so far. Utilizing a dream-like, unsettling atmosphere, the approach to this book was so well-done and really served the story at hand.
Vo also brilliantly called back to a narrative thread from one of the other tales (I won’t say which) with such tact. Though some readers may find that repetitive, I found it to be a really strong choice. It allowed the installments, though primarily standalones, to start holding some elemental conversations, without causing either story to lean on the other. It was exactly the right installment to start bridging the gaps between the stories at hand without rupturing their ability to function on their own. Regardless of which order you read these books in, this parallel will be an exciting and unexpected familiar face amidst these otherwise mostly unconnected narratives.
As I mentioned earlier, in the third installment, the narrative parallel felt more like “oh, we’ve seen this trick before.” It didn’t quite work. Whereas in this installment, it was precisely BECAUSE we had seen this trick before that it worked for the narrative. It felt like that thread had concluded, now resting off to the side, because of the way its presence functioned in the structure of that previous story. So of course we fell for the trick again, because we thought we had left it behind.
I think this is also the first time in The Singing Hills series that Vo has really made use of limited narration. We’ve, at this point, come to rely on Chih as a truthful and honest storyteller, whose sole purpose is to chronicle information, which allows us a consistent and trustworthy perspective in which to view the world. And wow, does Vo capitalize on this lens in this one.
I am so pleased to see something new and invigorating pumped into the lungs of this series. After the lull of the past few books, it was really exciting to read an installment that is definitely competing for my favorite of the books out so far.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
CW: dead body, drugging, blood & gore, decapitation (offscreen), alcohol, sexual content (implied)...more
I had the absolute honor of reading an early draft of this book and I cannot sing its praises highly enough. Political, historical, Jewish, queer, romI had the absolute honor of reading an early draft of this book and I cannot sing its praises highly enough. Political, historical, Jewish, queer, romantic, adventurous, heart-wrenching, lyrical, ferocious, THE MAIDEN AND HER MONSTER is a masterpiece of a debut. This is one of the most impactful and close-to-the-heart stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and it brought me to tears with its profundity. Maddie has tapped into something inevitable, ancient, and eternal about the Jewish experience that feels so impossible, so bigger than itself that I can’t imagine it’s anything less than pure magic.
This book features a glorious canopy of Jewish folklore, sapphic romance, and the enchanting allure of a sentient forest, supported by a strong and meaty tale with rich characters, abundant commentary, and succulent prose. And buried deep in the story’s roots, you’ll find a beating heart that bleeds with grief, hope, and passion.
It’s an indescribable feeling to have a friend write a book and for it to end up being one of the most powerful and moving works you’ve ever read, and exactly the story your heart was yearning for. I’m full of so much gratitude and pride, and I can’t wait for you all to fall in love with Nimrah and Malka like I have....more
I have never felt so utterly betrayed, absolutely overjoyed, and unhingedly giddy with ego and adrenaline all at theHAHAHAHHAHAHAH I AM LOSING MY MIND
I have never felt so utterly betrayed, absolutely overjoyed, and unhingedly giddy with ego and adrenaline all at the same time. I need to mark this date in my diary.
Only one other person on planet Earth has ever felt this exact feeling and they likened it to the feeling Truman gets when he finds out about the Truman show. and yeah. it’s not unlike that.
Thank you to Melissa for sending me a finished copy in exchange for my raw reaction to your evil schemes over video call. I love and hate you for this.
CW: violence, alcoholism relapse, trauma, colonialism, grief, death of loved one, character death, self harm, blood & gore, dead bodies, fire, illness, electrocution, human experimentation, sexual content, kidnapping, death of parents, death of sibling, needles, infidelity, emesis...more
Howl's Moving Castle but make it a folkloric Polish fantasy in a sentient forest AND sentient house? yes please!
If you're a fan of fairytale retellingHowl's Moving Castle but make it a folkloric Polish fantasy in a sentient forest AND sentient house? yes please!
If you're a fan of fairytale retellings (Beauty and the Beast in this case), lush prose, tender romances, folklore and legends, the Howl's Moving Castle Ghibli movie, and atmospheric settings, I think this book will be just as up your alley as it was mine. An absolutely gorgeous debut from A.B. Poranek.
CW: (I was listening partially on audiobook, so did not keep full track, take these with a grain of salt.) violence, blood & gore, confinement, character death, grief, death of father (past), religious bigotry, minor/ancient being relationship, fire, dead bodies, child abuse (mention), domestic abuse (past)...more
I am constantly looking for something new, that breaks away from expectations and trends, and this book was justAlexa, play Nobody's Soldier by Hozier
I am constantly looking for something new, that breaks away from expectations and trends, and this book was just that: wholly unique. This theater kid epic, full of intrigue and curiosity, is hard to pin down. Berry spends this one-of-a-kind novel celebrating the ability of story to shape the world we live in, and the power held in carving a story of your own. It had me mystified, pulling me through this narrative not by a need to find answers to its questions but by a joy of traversing the unknowns.
Theater kids, lovers of language, storytellers of all kinds, folks who are fans of the journey rather than the destination, I implore you to check out this dystopian literary fantasy.
Thank you so much to Jedediah and TOR for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
Wow these books are gorgeous. They’re so lovely and atmospheric to live in. This one definitely had a clearer and more consistent plot, which I apprecWow these books are gorgeous. They’re so lovely and atmospheric to live in. This one definitely had a clearer and more consistent plot, which I appreciated, and I loved getting to see the world through Silver’s eyes. I still find some of Tesh’s writing to be confusingly organized but I’ll get over it for the sake of the vibes.
CW: drugging, claustrophobia, dead body, decapitation (past), blood, body horror, drowning...more
almost 350 pages of the characters talking about the hypotheticals of the mystery at hand, then having sex, then talking about their relationship despalmost 350 pages of the characters talking about the hypotheticals of the mystery at hand, then having sex, then talking about their relationship despite only knowing for each other for a few days, and repeating that over and over until the last few chapters of the book.
this story certainly wasn’t as low as my expectations for it were, considering the only things I had heard about it where in comparison to the first book in the trilogy, but it definitely had its shortcomings. I loooooved its characters and their personal journeys, but the pacing really struggled here, and I felt that Marske had a tough time balancing the moving parts of this mystery.
CW: death, murder, violence, sexual content, blood, drugging, dead body, death of parents (past), grief, emesis, alcohol consumption...more