rainwaterspark | Entries tagged with books

It's that time again!

Lots of fantasy titles I'm excited for next year. Generally my reading tastes have been SFF and mysteries/thrillers, with the occasional horror novel. Romance I don't really read anymore (unless it's a romance with BIPOC leads, in which case I'll give it a try).

1. A Place for Vanishing by Ann Fraistat: January 16, 2024

(YA, horror) I can never resist a haunted house book.

2. Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru: January 23, 2024

(YA, sci-fi, heist) Treasure Island in a sunken future Las Vegas? Yes, please.

3. Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson: January 30, 2024

(Adult, mystery) I actually couldn't finish the first book in this series, so I may DNF this one as well, but...a murder in a confined space, and all the suspects are authors? Those are some of my favorite mystery tropes ever.

4. These Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang: January 30, 2024

(YA, fantasy, mystery) Knives Out with magic? I'll read it.

5. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett: February 6, 2024

(Adult, fantasy, mystery) Haven't read this author before, but I'll read a fantasy Sherlock and Holmes mystery.

6. A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal: February 20, 2024

(YA, fantasy, heist) I sadly didn't enjoy We Hunt the Flame, but I will always give a fantasy heist book a go.

7. Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan: February 27, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) Gorgeous cover + Asian mythology in a submerged city.

8. Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Abike-Iyimide: March 19, 2024

(YA, thriller)

9. Darker By Four by June CL Tan: April 2, 2024

(YA, fantasy) I had mixed feelings about the author's debut, but I'm willing to give a Chinese urban fantasy about the Underworld a try.

10. Ghost Station by SA Barnes: April 9, 2024

(Adult, sci-fi, horror) I really enjoyed the author's previous space horror, Dead Silence, so I'm stoked for this one too.

11. The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg: April 9, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) Thai fantasy? Cool!!

12. Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee: April 23, 2024

(YA, mystery)

13. Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau: May 7, 2024

(Adult, romance)

14. Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland: May 7, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) To be honest, I've had no interest in any of the romantasy being put out by Red Tower Books, but this synopsis sounds really cool??

15. Road to Ruin by Hana Lee: May 14, 2024

(Adult, fantasy)

16. Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf: May 21, 2024

(Adult, sci-fi) “sci-fantasy New Adult book about a girl piloting a giant robot against a space monarchy” Welp, say no more!!

17. Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo: May 21, 2024

(Adult, sci-fi, mystery)

18. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton: May 21, 2024

(Adult, sci-fi, mystery) I had mixed feelings about The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, but although I had issues with it, I did find it un-putdownable, so I'm interested in another speculative mystery from this author.

19. One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware: May 21, 2024

(Adult, thriller) I thought Ruth Ware already wrote her And Then There Were None homage in One By One, but it looks like she's doing another one. And even though I DNF most of her books, I do find them readable, and I can never resist an ATTWN-inspired thriller.

20. Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Abike-Iyimide and Adiba Jaigirdar: June 4, 2024

(YA, romance)

21. The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim: June 4, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) A contemporary investigative fantasy with a gumiho and fallen god protagonist? Sounds like it was written to my taste exactly.

22. Looking For Smoke by KA Cobell: June 4, 2024

(YA, thriller)

23. Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen: June 18, 2024

(YA, fantasy) Gorgeous cover + silkpunk fantasy.

24. Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie Lin: June 18, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) Can't say no to fantasy set in Republican-era Shanghai.

25. The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim: June 25, 2024

(Adult, horror)

26. The Spice Gate by Prashanth Srivatsa: July 16, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) Indian fantasy about people who use spices to travel between kingdoms? Yes!

27. Nine Tailed by Jayci Lee: August 1, 2024

(Adult, fantasy, romance) The second contemporary fantasy romance featuring a gumiho and Korean mythology? I'll take it.

28. The Girl With No Reflection by Keshe Chow: August 6, 2024

(YA, fantasy)

29. Ghostsmith by Nicki Pau Preto: August 13, 2024

(YA, fantasy) I enjoyed Bonesmith, so I'm curious about the sequel.

30. A Banh Mi for Two by Trinity Nguyen: August 27, 2024

(YA, romance)

31. The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart: September 3, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) I didn't finish the Drowned Empire trilogy, but I'll give a new fantasy world by this author a try.

32. This Book Kills by Ravena Guron: September 3, 2024

(YA, thriller) So, spoiler alert, I've already read this book because my friend got me a copy from the UK, but I'm so excited for the US release and can't wait to buy a US copy!

33. The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow: September 10, 2024

(Adult, fantasy)

34. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson: September 17, 2024

(Adult, horror) Ummm I have never read this author before and just heard of this book, but consider me INTRIGUED.

35. The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning: September 17, 2024

(YA, fantasy, mystery) Every book that has comped to Knives Out so far has disappointed me, but I can't help reading them regardless.

36. Darkside by Michael Mammay: September 24, 2024

(Adult, sci-fi) I love Planetside, so how can I say no to another entry in the series?

37. The Dark Becomes Her by Judy I. Lin: October 1, 2024

(YA, horror) More horror with non-Western myths and folklore, please!

38. Zodiac Rising by Katie Zhao: October 1, 2024

(YA, fantasy, heist) Chinese urban fantasy + zodiac magic + heist??

39. The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch: October 8, 2024

(Adult, romance, fantasy) A queer romance between the son of Santa Claus and the Prince of Halloween? SAY NO MORE!!

40. The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan: October 8, 2024

(Adult, fantasy, romance) I don't know anything about this except it's a Chinese romantasy with a dragon?

41. The Bitter End by Alexa Donne: October 15, 2024

(YA, thriller) I've enjoyed this author's previous two thrillers, so I'm excited for her next one.

42. The Blood Orchid by Kylie Lee Baker: October 22, 2024

(YA, fantasy) I had mixed feelings about The Scarlet Alchemist, but since I thought the sequel in the author's previous duology was better than the first book, I'll give the sequel to TSA a try.

43. Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson: October 22, 2024

(Adult, mystery)

44. Fortune's Kiss by Amber Clement: November 12, 2024

(YA, fantasy)

45. The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso: November 19, 2024

(Adult, fantasy) Fantasy with a time loop/reality-bending shenanigans? I'm curious.

46. Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao: December 24, 2024

(YA, fantasy, sci-fi)

47. Temporary Bodies by Anuradha Rajurkar: 2024

(YA, gothic)

I’ve been in a horrible reading slump lately. I’ve quit so many books, and even can’t pay attention to many audiobooks.

Surprisingly, the one thing that’s pulling me out of my reading slump lately…is Chinese danmei wuxia/xianxia novels.

I’d watched The Untamed and the donghua adaptation of Heaven Official’s Blessing a while ago, but I recently watched Scumbag System, the donghua adaptation of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. Because of censorship in China (siiiiiigh), I was curious enough about the plot of SVSSS to read the novel. And then I also started reading The Husky and His White Cat Shizun.*

(*This is not a post about Husky, but let me just get this out of the way: the romance is problematic AF, yet I kept reading because of the unexpectedly beautiful writing, rich detail, and fascinating fantasy worldbuilding.)

Something about being immersed in the aesthetics and descriptions of Chinese settings has felt to me like soaking in a warm hot spring. I just want to absorb it all.

Also, despite how long these books are, the pacing never feels slow. Not like many American fantasy novels, which put me to sleep because nothing happens for a hundred pages. Maybe it’s a function of having to keep reader interest high chapter by chapter, but whatever it is, it keeps me turning the pages.

I'm trying to think about what it is that draws me to these stories so much. Maybe it's the worldbuilding, which is so different from American fantasy novels (and even feels different from Chinese diaspora American fantasy novels?). Maybe it's the angsty romance that is devoid of instalove and takes many chapters to build to.

The only thing I know is that I want to read more. And I hope to be able to absorb enough to write my own Chinese fantasy novel(s) one day.

Man, I've been having a really bad reading streak so far this year. I think I've finished reading 5 books and DNF'ed 6? My most anticipated books don't come out until October. :( I'm praying I'll find some good books between now and then...

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

Genre: Adult, thriller

This author's previous thriller (The Wife Upstairs) was a 3/5 star read for me, plus I love the isolation thriller trope, e.g. a murder happening in an isolated location such as a mountain chalet or a remote island.

But I got 50% or so through this book and just...absolutely nothing is happening. It's just about Lux, her BF, some girls they met, and a rich couple chilling together on an island. So I had to quit.

I sort of get now why a lot of people are against flashbacks on principle—because it turns out there are plenty of books that use them poorly. The flashbacks in this book interrupt the flow of the story and also create tension where none existed before—because there is no tension in the present day timeline. I believe flashbacks work best to flesh out something that's hinted at in the main storyline, not to attempt to create drama where none exists. Otherwise, the flashbacks feel like cheating or a crutch, a way for the author to get out of organically creating tension by having a side story to try to entice the reader to keep reading further.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Genre: Adult, mystery

Another DNF roughly halfway through. This premise sounded really cool, but the execution didn't match what I was expecting.

I thought this would be an isolation mystery in which the protagonist tried to figure out which of his family members committed a murder at a mountaintop resort. However, as of about halfway through, none of the family members are suspects (partly because the murder victim's identity isn't even known). Instead, the protagonist is attempting to investigate whether a serial killer is present at the resort, and...that's where my interest in the book sputtered and died. I don't really enjoy mysteries where a serial killer is suddenly dropped into the plot out of nowhere.

Also, this book is very tongue-in-cheek about murder mystery conventions. The narrator would say things like "normally this is when a dead body would appear, and it has, but I haven't discovered it yet" or "another dead body will appear in Chapter X." It was charming in a quirky way at first, but that style wore out its welcome by the middle of the book, and it also started to feel like a way to drop spoilers in the text.

I will still give the author's next book a try, if only because it appears to be a pretty clear homage to Murder on the Orient Express and I can't help feeling curious about it.

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

Genre: Adult, fantasy

Not a mystery/thriller for once, though there is a mystery subplot.

I was really enjoying this for the first third of the book. The infodumping in the first few chapters annoyed me, but once I got past those parts, I found the writing to be pretty snappy and cinematic.

Then...the second third lost me, and I ended up skimming the final third.

I found myself wishing this book was structured more like a mystery; while there is a murder mystery introduced, the main characters don't really take steps to solve it. They do have a general goal—investigating the new breed of undead—but again, they don't really actively investigate for the most part. So the second third, which should have been a fun vampire-hunting road trip, felt meandering and unfocused, which is the fastest way to get me to put a book down.

Another reason the book lost me was the much-touted polyamorous romance. Individually, I enjoyed the three main characters—I especially liked Xiaodan being the brawn and Malekh being the brain—but together, their relationship didn't capture me. It was entirely instalove, which doesn't work for me. I thought at least the Remy/Malekh relationship might have an enemies-to-lovers arc, but no, it's revealed they fell for each other the first time they met and were just really bad at communicating their feelings.

Also, Remy is supposed to be nonbinary, I think? But the book felt like it still incorporated a lot of tired gender clichés. Xiaodan is the warm, friendly one while Malekh is reserved, standoffish, and bad at discussing his feelings. Snore.

Ever since I read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and the sci-fi horror novels Salvation Day by Kali Wallace and Dead Silence by SA Barnes, I've fallen into a fascination with reading horror books. In fact, my TBR list for 2023 has the most horror novels ever. Though, as I'm starting to read more horror novels, I'm slowly figuring out what works and doesn't work for me in the genre.

For one, so far, I find sci-fi horror and psychological horror to be scarier to me than ghosts, spirits, or gore. Sci-fi horror, because nothing frightens me more than the idea of an alien virus or parasite causing people to go berserk; psychological horror, because I'm addicted to the slow build-up of dread, unsettling feelings, and questioning "wait, is something weird going on or am I seeing/hearing things?"

Spirits? Killer ghosts? Monstrous man-eating creatures? Meh.

Hell, I was surprised when a friend told me they couldn't read The Hacienda by Isabal Cañas at night because of how scary it was. I blew through that book thinking it wasn't all that frightening. Demonic possession in a house? Okay, sure.

Maybe it's partly because monsters in a verbal medium are inherently less scary than in a visual medium. I've started reading horror books, but I'm still reluctant to watch horror movies. I enjoyed watching YouTube playthroughs of the video game The Medium—the main monster there definitely freaks me out every time in a way that I wouldn't feel if I just read about it in a book.

I think maybe it's also because, as someone who struggles with anxiety, I find the scariest books ones that focus on the fear of the unknown. Hence why I love psychological horror/thriller. If a monster has a shape and a physical form, well, it's something that I've seen or heard of before, even if it's a new take on it. (Also, maybe my history of reading fantasy plays into this? I've read enough books, watched enough shows, and played enough games with monsters that end up killed by the protagonist, no matter how scary they are.)

But a story in which the protagonist has no idea what they're dealing with? Or one in which a protagonist is wondering if their own mind is betraying them? Terrifying.

Also, what I love about stories like Mexican Gothic and The Medium is that, while there are Scary Things (TM) at play, ultimately, the story is about how humans are the most frightening monsters of all. And that resonates with me so deeply. I have never read that much horror, but it still strikes me as impossible to invent some new scary monster that no one has ever seen or heard of before. So basing the reveal of the horrific thing on the "what" rather than the "why" never really freaks me out.

(Hell, I still haven't quite given up on my own haunted house horror idea I came up with last year but put on the back burner, which is all about the monstrousness of humans.)

Anyway, this rant was brought to you by Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie, which was well-written and engaging but gave me more feelings of "these main characters are idiots" rather than terrified fascination. Here's the rest of my horror TBR for 2023, and here's hoping I'll find more books that scratch my particular itch:

- She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (Mexican Gothic was used as a comp for this, so I'm excited)
- Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury (if I can find it on audio, since I already had a rough time trying to read this)
- The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown (sci-fi horror!)
- Paradise-1 by David Wellington (more sci-fi horror, though the advance reviews have made me wary of this)
- Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith (oceanic horror on a cruise ship!)
- Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (another SMG horror book!)
- Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes (no idea about this but the summary sounded vaguely interesting?)

Just a bunch of random thoughts I had lately on some books—one review and a few rambles on openings of books that haven't come out yet.

Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt

Genre: YA, contemporary

I've got to be honest, I wouldn't have finished this book if not for the fact that I started playing Persona 5 and realized that Akechi's voice actor was the narrator for this audiobook. He does a great job, don't get me wrong, but the thing is that despite being called "a heist," this book isn't really a heist story. It's more about five asexual friends chilling and trying to F up a major casino mogul. Which is fine if that's what you're looking for, but not if you were expecting an exciting heist story.

Thoughts on Shanghai Immortal by AY Chao

The first chapter of this book was posted online, so I read it out of curiosity.

I feel bad about nitpicking books by Chinese diaspora authors, I really do, but there were a couple of things that really bugged me from the first chapter:

1. The King of Hell, Yanluo, is referred to as "Big Wang" by the main character (Jing). I'm assuming the author meant 大王，which can be translated as "big Wang." Here's the problem, though. "Wang" (王) in this context isn't Yanluo's name, but his title; the name Yanluowang is supposed to be "King Yanluo," not "Wang" as a surname. So when Chinese people call him 大王，it's supposed to be an honorific, like "Master" or "Your Majesty." It's not supposed to function like the affectionate "big [surname]"/"little [surname]" that is a thing in Chinese culture. Seeing that in this book just drove me up the wall.

2. Jing pulling her qipao up to her thighs because she's so hot and then saying if anyone caught her, she'd be criticized for not showing Confucian modesty—my friends, Confucius was about describing relationships in society, not policing dress codes. Qipao didn't even exist when Confucius was alive. I hate the way Confucianism is invoked to explain everything conservative about Chinese culture, as though Chinese people walk around thinking "what would Confucius say about _____?" because NO ONE THINKS LIKE THAT. (Also, qipao have a slit up one side! How is she still hot if that's the case?!!)

3. The way Tony Lee spoke, like "this humble servant begs Lady Jing [blah blah blah]," annoyed me. I get that it's trying to translate a specific cultural norm in Mandarin, but in this case, it came off as, I don't know, feeling really disingenuous in English? I think She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan was able to pull off that style of translation, but that was also a historical, more literary-feeling book where that kind of language didn't feel so out of place. Here, it felt to me like a caricature.

Thoughts on Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury

I read the first four-ish chapters of this book ahead of its release. I was initially excited for this because I'm still on the hunt for good haunted house books, but I'm starting to think I just don't gel with Liselle Sambury's writing style.

For both this book and her debut, Blood Like Magic, I felt like the pacing was way too slow and there's too much infodumping in the beginning. I may make another attempt to get through this book by listening to the audiobook, but I know I won't be able to read a print/ebook copy because I found myself exasperated with how slowly the story was moving. While I normally enjoy dual timelines, I feel like the timing of the two POVs in this book didn't work for me because the present timeline told us that Daisy from the past timeline was going to die in a haunted house before Daisy even mentions the *idea* of moving to a house. I feel that dual timelines should each enhance the tension of the other timeline, but that didn't happen in this book.

I also couldn't tell when the timelines were supposed to take place. I feel like I read somewhere online that Daisy's timeline was supposed to take place in the early 00s? But that didn't make sense because she talks so much about social media and influencer culture, and that was absolutely not a thing in the early 00s. Even if her timeline took place in 2013, Instagram wasn't nearly as big then as it is now.

I should probably do a wrap-up of how many books I've read per year at the end of each year, but I guess I'll just start keeping a record now for the past couple of years.

2018: 33 books read + 8 DNF

2019: 42 books read + 4 DNF

2020: 48 books read + 3 DNF

2021: 60 books read + 18 DNF

2022: 56 books read + 10 DNF

It's hard to have accurate numbers for 2015 - 2017 since, during that time, I was reading a lot of indie romance novels and not really keeping track of them via Goodreads. DNF numbers are also an approximation, since I'll DNF a LOT of books in any given year (I try not to count the books I stop reading after only the first/second chapter unless there was something that particularly made me upset).

I started listening to audiobooks in 2019, and I really credit that for my increase in number of books I read per year. (Maybe I should do a break down of audio vs. print/ebook reading one day...maybe. I can definitely say that I'll almost always choose to listen to a book on audio vs. reading if both options are available for me.)

I feel like my number of books read per year may come down going forward because I may not be reading as much backlog/as many older releases. In 2019 and 2020, I was going through a lot of Agatha Christie books, and in 2021, I went through a thriller reading phase, and also read the whole Murderbot series. But who knows!

Currently, though, I'm in a bit of a reading slump. I'm hoping to find a good book coming out in the next few months, but right now, I'm languishing in "nothing is piquing my interest" land, for what feels like the first time in three years. Sigh.

*EDIT: Okay, I was curious and decided to do an audio vs. print/ebook breakdown. The numbers are estimates since, for some titles, I legitimately couldn't remember whether I listened to or read them.

2020: 32 audio / 17 print/ebook
2021: 31 audio / 29 print/ebook

2022: 33 audio / 23 print/ebook

So...yep, I generally read at least 50% of books per year on audio. Some of them, I'd read physically if audio weren't available, but some of them I wouldn't.

Happy New Year! And I've got some book reviews...for books I didn't finish reading.

I feel like I've been DNF'ing a lot of books lately. Maybe it's because I listen to a lot of audiobooks now, and I often tend to stick it out with an audiobook longer than I would with a print/ebook---things like writing style bother me less in an audiobook than a print book, in which I'd usually end up DNF'ing after the first chapter.

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Genre: Adult, historical fantasy, queer romance

DNF about 60%.

I picked this up solely because it had Knives Out as a comp title, and I couldn't resist the idea of a murder mystery on a boat. So far, I've been disappointed by books that use Knives Out as a comp title, and this one was no exception.

Essentially, the murder mystery vanishes by the 50% mark, and the rest of the book is just a straight-up fantasy. The magic was interesting, but I found myself not caring about the characters enough to keep reading.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

Genre: Young Adult, thriller

I DNF'ed this about a third of the way through and then skipped to the end.

I've had Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on my library holds for a while, simply because it seems so popular. But I ended up feeling very bored by Five Survive. I adore thrillers where the main characters are all keeping secrets from each other (such as You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus), but this one lost me. I felt like it took way too long to reach the central premise of the book as described in the summary; 25% of the book was a long time to spend reading about the characters arguing with each other as they're driving in an RV. The book also didn't do a good job at hinting that the characters were hiding secrets from each other, so there was very little tension in the beginning, either. And by the time the main characters' lives were in danger, I just didn't care enough about them to care about what was going on. So I skipped to the end, and it sounded like the plot got really dark and also broke a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan

Genre: Adult, fantasy

This one hurt to DNF at about 39%, because I adored Daughter of the Moon Goddess, the first book in the series. I may pick this book back up at a later point, though spoilers I've read about in reviews make me feel like I wouldn't have enjoyed the ending anyway.

My main problem with this book was that the episodic format of the plot didn't work for me. It worked in the first book because (1) that was a coming of age story, and (2) Xingyin always had an overarching goal---to free/return to her mother---which unified the episodic events. In this book, however, Xingyin feels very reactive as a character: the plot consists of her reacting to one danger to the next, and it was never clear where the plot was going overall.

Also, while I loved Xingyin in the first book, here she feels unnecessarily impulsive and reckless, and that soured my enjoyment of the book. Plus, both Liwei and Wenzhi felt like blank slates without any personality except "desperately in love with Xingyin."

(Deep, heavy sigh.)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and Recursion by Blake Crouch

Genre: Adult, sci-fi, thriller

I was suddenly in the mood for multiverse sci-fi and went looking for books that could scratch that itch. However, I DNF'ed both of these books (Dark Matter at around Chapter 5 and Recursion after Chapter 1).

I decided to combine my thoughts about these two books in one section, partly because they're by the same author, partly because they're the same/similar genre (sci-fi multiverse thriller) and partly because my issues with them were similar. Blake Crouch seems interested in the idea that if you could only choose one between career success and having a traditional nuclear family, having a traditional nuclear family is superior.

And that's just so annoying to me.

First of all, why can't someone have both? In Dark Matter for example, the alt-universe Jason could have revived his relationship with Daniela, but instead he's (for reasons I don't know because I DNF'ed the book) convinced it's "too late" and would rather swap places with another universe's version of himself. In Recursion, I don't know why the woman in the first chapter is convinced that her professional success as a financial something-or-other means she can never have a relationship in her 30s or 40s or however old she was.

Secondly, it just feels like a very classist, heteronormative, patriarchal, Boomer-focused sermon on "what really matters in life." The idea that "having financial success doesn't matter" just doesn't jive for millennials who grew up in the wake of the early 2000s recession.

Also, Dark Matter made me think Blake Crouch is the Dan Brown of sci-fi thrillers, with the exception being that I actually like Dan Brown books, in spite of the criticisms leveled at them. I don't know whether the multiverse aspect was supposed to be a big reveal; since I already knew it going in, I lost patience with how long it was taking Jason One (so to speak) to understand what was going on. Jason One's constant pursuit, death, and capture to be locked up "for mental issues" just got really old to read about very quickly and strained credulity for me.

Strike the Zither by Joan He

Genre: Young Adult, fantasy

I am a big fan of He's Descendant of the Crane, so when I saw she was doing another Chinese fantasy novel, I wanted to give it a shot, even though I don't have any feelings about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Unfortunately, I DNF'ed this after four or five chapters.

First off, I'm not always a big fan of "take a male-dominated classic, and make every single character female instead." I don't know, I just thought the "lordess", "ministress", etc. titles felt silly after a while.

I also felt like this was one book that really suffered from being YA. It was silly (again) that 16-year-olds were running war campaigns in fantasy China and claiming to be the smartest strategists ever. Are there any adults in this world at all? And if not, why not?

But my biggest issue was that none of the characters were interesting. I don't mind an arrogant female protagonist, but I dunno, there was nothing to Zephyr outside of that except a stock tragic backstory involving a dead little sister. We're given very little reason why we should be on the side of Xin Ren (the Liu Bei expy, as I understand it). Again, I've never read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I have nothing to say regarding how accurate/faithful of a retelling STZ is. And based on everything I've seen Joan He say, she doesn't seem to care if readers who are used to Western stories (waving my hand here as a Chinese American who grew up on Western stories) like STZ or not, due to the fact that it breaks Western storytelling conventions.

Fair. But then, you can't really be surprised or upset when readers decide to give up rather than make an investment in your story.

And my issue isn't with how STZ is structured; it's with the fact that I found none of the characters compelling enough to push through the story.

It's just weird to me that He seems so fixated on having a "faithful adaptation" when the mid-story twist (which I only know about from reviews) is not at all faithful to Romance of the Three Kingdoms (and arguably reduces the character of Zhuge Liang). In my very humble opinion, maybe she should have considered deviating from the source material more just to make the characters more compelling.

(And yes, in case you're wondering, I'll admit it—I don't really like it when authors defend their books too much. A book should stand or fall on its own merits, and people are free to not like the creative choices an author makes.)

Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe

Genre: Young Adult, contemporary

Trigger warning: Implied/non-graphic on-the-page sexual assault, confinement, psychological abuse

( Read more... )

Go Hunt Me by Kelly deVos

Genre: Young Adult, horror

I actually finished this book, lol.

So...I thought this would be an And Then There Were None-style thriller, but it's really more of a straight-up horror novel where people die one by one. I actually liked the sort-of dual timeline aspect, wherein each chapter ends with an excerpt from the investigation into the deaths after Alex escapes Castle Prahova.

I have to say, straight up, that this is a story that rests mostly on the final chapter twist. And that has its pros and cons. The upside is that there's some interesting subversion going on with certain characters (which I won't spoil). The downside is, well...

Some other reviews have said that the main horror aspect of the book was silly. I don't read enough horror to be able to judge, but I can see that point. But, because of the final twist, it's kind of intentional, in a way.

Yet...is it worth it to read an intentionally clichéd, cheesy horror story because the final twist proves it was all intentional?

I don't know. (And I'm sure people who are more of a horror buff than I am would have stronger feelings about it.)

Never Coming Home by Kate Williams

Genre: Young Adult, thriller

Never Coming Home is a straight-up retelling of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, except with Gen Z influencer protagonists. Even the writing style was similar, with the constant POV-hopping that I generally dislike but instantly recognized as characteristic of ATTWN.

So, of course, I had a fun time with this, even though it was such a close retelling that none of the plot twists were that unexpected. I expect anyone who's never read ATTWN would find this book more surprising. And it was genuinely cool how well the plot could be retold in modern times, with modern technology.

( The rest cut for spoilers )

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Genre: Young Adult, fantasy

I've been eagerly waiting for this book ever since I finished Legendborn. My final thoughts on it are...complicated.

And a major part of that complication has to do with the fact that this book pretty much didn't do anything I expected.

( Spoilers for Bloodmarked beneath the cut )

Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne

Genre: YA, mystery, thriller

Content warnings: Death of a parent due to cancer

I really loved The Ivies and I'm excited for the author's 2024 take on And Then There Were None, so of course I had to read this!

Unfortunately, I was spoiled on the ending ahead of time due to a Goodreads review that had unmarked spoilers regarding the killer's identity (I hope the writer of that review walks on Legos). I wish I hadn't known, because of course nothing felt surprising in the wake of that review.

Like with The Ivies, this was a quick read. Sometimes it felt a bit too quick; there were certain plotlines that I wish had been expanded upon. I also feel like "death of a Mean Girl who was popular but hated at the same time" is starting to feel like an overdone trope. For me, this book stands out less than The Ivies, though it's probably because "small town murder" feels a little bit overdone these days, on top of the "Mean Girl murder victim" trope. Though I did really love the angle revolving around the protagonist's grandmother being a famous murder mystery writer who was popular enough to have her own fan convention. I also found Cecelia a well done character and totally believed in her grief motivating her to throw herself into a murder investigation in order to regain some sense of control.

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim

Genre: Adult, fantasy

DNF ~20%. I was excited for this book when I borrowed it, but unfortunately the combination of not great audiobook and not great writing made me put it down.

The audiobook narrator isn't bad, it's just that sometimes, I feel like British narrators can be a bit too smooth and monotone. I listened to some of the chapters three times and still could not process what was happening because I kept zoning out. It didn't really help that the narrator didn't differentiate between the voices outside of giving some of the Houses a different accent; the lack of difference in voices for male and female characters was pretty immersion-breaking and also made it hard to keep track of who was speaking.

I have more complaints about the writing itself, though. This is a long book (the audiobook is *25 hours*!), and it feels long. About 20% of the way in, I still wasn't sure what the plot was supposed to be and whether it had started yet. There are things happening, but the events all feel disjointed—not sure if this was because of the number of POVs there were, though I have to admit I'm biased against too many POVs in fantasy—and it was hard to tell what was important and what was filler.

I feel bad for having many harsh complaints about this book, because I know the author is a person of color. But I'm honestly a bit shocked that this isn't her debut (although it is her debut Adult book), because it reads so...amateur, in certain ways? The worldbuilding felt like she added every single "cool" idea she's ever had into one world. Yes, it's handwaved with the explanation that the city of Nexus is supposed to be a melting pot, but even then, it still feels like a bunch of random fantasy ideas that are disconnected from each other with no sense of cohesion. And I'm sorry, but shadow and light magic being reduced to having shadow and light familiars is just...the most boring interpretation of those fantasy concepts. (I know Nikolas was able to use "light speed" or something like that, and I wish the author had relied on those kinds of concepts and gotten rid of the familiars.)

Also, for a supposed "melting pot," there aren't really cultural distinctions among the different realms, outside of Parithvi being Indian-coded and Azana being Japanese-coded. Which makes it even odder that there are different linguistic bases for the character names—the Lastrider family has children named Dante, Taesia, and Brailee, then there's Angelica Mardova and Nikolas Cyr—without any cultural distinction among the families. Also, the lords are called "Don" and "Doña" and just, the linguistic inconsistencies were killing me.

I found all of the main characters boring. I hate to say it of a non-debut author, but it feels like the author confused "quippy banter" and "in a relationship" for personality. I could not describe the personalities of any of the main characters. I was totally apathetic to Taesia and Nikolas being in a relationship because I didn't care about either one of them individually, so obviously I didn't care about their relationship. I also found it odd that the author chose to make not one, but two of the royal heirs (a.k.a. half of the four of them) struggle with not being able to use their special magical powers properly. The fact that each of the royal families has special magic was supposed to be a selling point of this book; having maybe one of them struggle would have been okay, but two of them feels like not living up to the promise of the premise.

All in all, this book felt like a bit of a mess, and I felt like cutting it down would have been an improvement.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance

This was pretty much the book that convinced me to give up writing romance.

Emily Henry is so famous in the romance world that I felt like I should try her books. And the premise of this wasn't bad; I liked the concept of two rival authors falling in love.

But I could not stand the overly quirky style that seems to predominate Adult romance. It doesn't read as endearing to me; it reads as artificial. No one actually talks like this!!! And real life isn't made up of a bunch of quirky people/events happening one after another. It all just feels so...exaggerated and unreal.

(Sigh.)

Babel by RF Kuang

Genre: Adult, historical fantasy

DNF ~55%.

Honestly...I've spent the past few weeks ranting to all my friends and family members about how much I hate this book. So I'll boil down my complaints to a few points:

(1) This book is so goddamn condescending.
(2) It was full of so much telling rather than showing, which resulted in the characters being paper-thin cutouts and the pacing being all over the place. I am stunned that this is being praised as Kuang's masterpiece when The Poppy War trilogy was written better.
(3) There is so much racist violence in the book that it practically became a trigger for me.
(4) This book was so bad that, despite the fact that I generally enjoyed The Poppy War trilogy, I never want to read another RF Kuang book again.

There aren't as many books on my list as there were last year, but there's a nice mix of SFF, horror, and mystery/thriller I'm looking forward to.

1. Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao - January 3, 2023

(YA, fantasy) I'm a bit wary of this author, but I'm always down to try a Chinese-inspired fantasy by a Chinese author.

2. This Book Kills by Ravena Guron - January 5, 2023

(YA, thriller)

3. The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai - January 10, 2023

(Adult, fantasy)

4. Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie - January 24, 2023

(Adult, horror)

5. Someone Else’s Life by Lyn Liao Butler - February 1, 2023

(Adult, thriller)

6. Best Served Hot by Amanda Elliot - February 21, 2023

(Adult, contemporary romance) I really enjoyed Sadie on a Plate, so I'm looking forward to another food-focused romance from this author!!

7. She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran - February 28, 2023

(YA, horror) Still searching for the perfect haunted house book!

8. Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury - February 28, 2023

(YA, horror) Still searching for the perfect haunted house book!

9. Rubicon by JS Dewes - March 28, 2023

(Adult, sci-fi) I enjoyed the author's previous series, and Michael Mammay himself blurbed this book, so of course it went immediately on my TBR.

10. The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown - April 4, 2023

(Adult, sci-fi, horror) I love any book about a spaceship where spooky things are happening!

11. Paradise-1 by David Wellington - April 4, 2023

(Adult, sci-fi, horror)

12. Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina - April 18, 2023

(Adult, horror, thriller)

13. The Sun and the Star by Mark Oshiro and Rick Riordan - May 2, 2023

(MG, fantasy) Solengelo book! Woooooo!!

14. Lying In the Deep by Diana Urban - May 2, 2023

(YA, thriller) I can never resist a murder mystery set on a ship!

15. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose - May 9, 2023

(Adult, fantasy) Indigenous fantasy about a dragon rider? Yes to this premise!

16. We’ll Never Tell by Wendy Heard - May 16, 2023

(YA, mystery/thriller) I've never read anything by this author before, but this murder mystery premise sounds interesting?

17. The Surviving Sky by Kritika Rao - June 13, 2023

(Adult, science fantasy)

18. The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon - June 27, 2023

(Adult, sci-fi) Mechas + comp to Nier: Automata = must read for me.

19. Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker - June 27, 2023

(Adult, fantasy) Okay, I've been mostly burned by pseudo-European fantasy by white authors, BUT the trope of "a Chosen One who failed to do what they were supposed to" is absolutely my catnip, so I'll give this a try!

20. Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith - June 27, 2023

(YA, horror) A haunted ship? Sign me up!

21. Good Fortune by CK Chau - July 11, 2023

(Adult, romance)

22. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - July 18, 2023

(Adult, horror) Another horror book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia? I'm excited!!

23. To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai - July 18, 2023

(Adult, heist) Heist with a bunch of broke graduate students! YES!!

24. Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington - July 25, 2023

(YA, thriller)

25. I'm Not Done With You Yet by Jesse Q. Sutanto - August 22, 2023

(Adult, thriller) I'm not completely sure what this book is about, but if it's a thriller about racism in publishing, I'm down.

26. Suddenly a Murder by Lauren Muñoz - September 5, 2023

(YA, mystery) Locked-room murder during a 1920s-themed party! This premise is killer!

27. The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa Matlin - September 12, 2023

(Adult, thriller) Can't resist a haunted house horror/thriller!

28. A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid - September 19, 2023

(YA, gothic)

29. Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis - September 26, 2023

(YA, heist)

30. The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker - October 3, 2023

(YA, fantasy) I really liked The Keeper of Night, plus this book is described as FullMetal Alchemist in Tang Dynasty China - how exciting!

31. Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis - October 3, 2023

(YA, fantasy) Sara Raasch is the author of one of my favorite fantasy books, plus this sounds like an intriguing enemies-to-lovers setup without any toxic red flags, so...I'll give this a go.

32. Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle - October 3, 2023

(YA, fantasy)

33. Generation Ship by Michael Mammay - October 17, 2023

(Adult, sci-fi)

34. The Blue Monsoon by Damyanti Biswas - October 24, 2023

(Adult, thriller) I really liked The Blue Bar, so I'm excited to read another thriller by this author!

35. People to Follow by Olivia Worley - October 31, 2023

(YA, thriller) This honestly sounds very similar to Never Coming Home by Kate Williams, but I can never resist an And Then There Were None-inspired isolation thriller.

36. System Collapse by Martha Wells - November 14, 2023

(Adult, sci-fi) NEW MURDERBOT NOVEL THIS IS NOT A DRILL AHHHHHHHH!!!!

37. The Kingdom of Without by Andrea Tang - November 28, 2023

(YA, sci-fi, heist) Heist in cyberpunk Beijing? I'm curious.

38. Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes - December 5, 2023

(Adult, horror) I just keep adding horror books to my TBR list for this year.

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

Genre: Adult, horror, speculative

DNF for now about 36%. I might make another attempt when my library hold on the ebook comes in, but I struggled with the audiobook due to the narrator's monotonous voice, the inability to skip forward, and the issues I'll describe below.

I've been dying to read more haunted house books ever since I enjoyed Dead Silence by SA Barnes (which was kind of like a haunted house in space story), but this...was not it.

The issue is probably that Sarah Gailey is not a writer I click with. The only other book of theirs I've tried to read was Magic For Liars, which I also DNF'ed after a whopping three attempts to read that book.

I just found this book incredibly boring. Vera, the protagonist, has no personality outside of the fact that she loved her serial killer father and wishes her emotionally abusive/neglectful mother would love her back. I couldn't tell you anything about her character outside of those two facts. The relationship between a child and an abusive parent should be emotionally fraught, and while I hesitate to say the depiction of Vera's relationship with her mother was inaccurate—because I don't want to say things are "inaccurate" simply because they don't align with my own experiences—the relationship gave me nothing. Vera was passive in the relationship and kept unconditionally loving her mother despite knowing her mother didn't love her in return.

I'm interested in haunted house books, but the "child of a serial killer" trope is one of my least favorite thriller tropes, and so I frankly just did not care about all the ruminating Vera did on her relationship with her father. This is an issue I also had with Magic For Liars—I find Gailey is just too repetitive in how they depict their protagonists, who seem constructed around one single thought pattern that is repeated in their internal narration ad nauseum.

Also, basically nothing happened in the first third of the book besides Vera finding a few odd messages in the house, and I found the flashbacks completely unnecessary. (Side note: Why am I, as a writer, always slammed for using flashbacks when there are plenty of books that not only use flashbacks, but also use them quite poorly?)

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Genre: Adult, thriller

I hated the first book I read by Lucy Foley (The Guest List), so this book was...better, in comparison. But Foley is probably also an author I just don't gel with. I'm not prudish in my reading habits, but her thrillers always revolve so much around sex that I get very turned off.

Things We Do In the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

Genre: Adult, thriller

I won this book in an audiobook giveaway, after I noticed this book seemed to be getting quite a lot of buzz. But my feelings about it are...meh. Maybe 2.5 out of 5 stars if I had to go with a rating.

This was less of a conventional thriller and more a story about how much trauma the protagonist went through as a child. There were a few good twists, although the major one was fairly obvious—and I would actually argue that not knowing the first twist made Part 2 of the book very hard to get through. My favorite parts of the book were the parts that dealt with Jimmy Peralta's death and also the way the book valued Paris and Jimmy's platonic relationship, which is something you rarely see in fiction.

But honestly, I did not enjoy the extensive flashbacks and the fact that half of the book felt like a character biography.

The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton

Genre: Middle grade, fantasy

I really wish I loved this book more than I did!

Don't get me wrong, I still rated it 4 out of 5 stars. And I could definitely see this being the equivalent of Harry Potter for the current generation of young teens. The world was magical and lushly described.

But the thing that I struggled with was the prejudice Ella constantly faced as a Conjuror. It was so unrelenting and pervasive that it sucked the lightheartedness and escapism out of the story for me and made me feel a little depressed as I was reading the book.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Genre: Adult, horror

This was a fine, but not what I was personally looking for. I wanted a haunted house book, but this isn't really that. However, if you've ever wanted a retelling of "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe, or if you're looking for books that have a certain [spoiler redacted] element similar to Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, this might be up your alley.

*

Next on my TBR are The Sleepless by Victor Manibo, Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt, The Depths by Nicole Lesperance, and hopefully my hold on the audiobook for Babel by RF Kuang comes in soon.

I am still on a quest for a good haunted house book, and it looks like I'll have to wait until next year. But there are quite a few coming out next year that I'm excited for:

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (which has been comped to Mexican Gothic)
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (I have not had a good time reading Hendrix before, but I'll at least give this a try)
Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie
Those We Drown by Amy Goldsmith (a haunted SHIP!)

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Everything For You by Chloe Liese

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance (pairing: M/M)

I'm about 80% of the way through this book, though I doubt the last 20% will change my impressions.

Honestly, I probably shouldn't have pushed myself to finish reading this book at all. I just found myself morbidly curious because this author is one of those authors who's written only M/F romance books, but suddenly came out with a M/M romance book.

And look, I'm 100% against forcing authors to out themselves (as someone who will never disclose how I identify publicly), and I've read M/M books by cis-female-identifying authors before that were fine and enjoyable. (The one that comes to mind first is Bidding For the Bachelor by Jackie Lau, which I greatly enjoyed, and though she almost always writes M/F romances, she's had bisexual leading characters before.)

But there’s nothing more awkward than picking up an M/M romance and feeling like “this is basically a M/F romance except with a different coat of paint for one of the MCs.”

Literally the lowest bar is making sure your M/M romance doesn’t read like the author tried to map the dynamic of a straight couple onto two queer men.

It just feels so egregious because Gavin acts like an alpha male and Oliver, despite being feisty and spunky, feels like the passive one in the relationship. Which is a rather common M/F trope. (I should probably also mention that I despise the alpha male/spunky female dynamic in M/F romances, too.)

Also, the interactions of every cis man in this book make me wonder “does this author know how men actually act with other men in real life?” To clarify, I am all for debunking toxic masculinity and having men be more emotionally vulnerable in romances. But just because toxic masculinity is a bad thing…doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to write a contemporary novel where it simply doesn’t exist.

That doesn’t feel progressive. That feels unrealistic.

The cis guys in this book talk about their feelings all the time, to other guys, in a very direct manner that cis women will do with each other, that you may be able to get away with in a conversation between a cis woman and a cis man, but that allo cis heterosexual guys are frankly not socialized to do with each other. It's hard to really articulate this, which drives me nuts; my tentative hypothesis is that cis women will generally volunteer how they're feeling, while cis men will usually only talk about their feelings in the context of solving an interpersonal problem. Even if my explanation is wrong, I'll say that if you read M/M romances by queer male authors, like Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall or I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson, you’ll see that the male protagonists do talk about their feelings, but they go about it in a very different way from Oliver and Gavin in this book.

Also, Oliver’s brothers apparently all read romance novels and quote romance tropes at each other, which…I’m sorry, this goes beyond “wish fulfillment cis guy behavior” to “flat out unbelievable.”

Another major issue? There’s no discussion of queer identities/experiences at all. I don’t expect every queer romance to have a struggle over identity as the main plot, but even if Oliver and Gavin are comfortable in their identities, their queerness still impacts how they move through the world. This book takes place in a world where there is no homophobia or biphobia in the world of competitive sports, except for one instance of a homophobic slur being hurled at Oliver for the purposes of giving him a panic attack so Gavin could go all White Knight. Which is...super ick.

And I’m sorry, but if their teammates are all allo cis heterosexual men, I expect the topic of romantic and/or sexual relationships to come up at some point in casual conversation or locker talk or whatever.

Plus, Oliver and Gavin don’t have queer friends (I mean, Gavin’s friend group of septuogenerians includes a queer couple, but that seems incidental) and never talk about needing a queer community or wanting to connect to other queer people on a platonic level. Oliver never talks about what it’s like to be the only queer kid among all his siblings, or the only queer guy among his (five or however many, I lost count) brothers.

Also. This book pulls the "one MC sees the other MC with a side character and thinks they're in a romantic relationship so they get all jealous" trope. Except said side character was Oliver's SIBLING. And the book pulls this TWICE, with TWO of Oliver's siblings. I don't know about everyone else, but "mistaking a sibling relationship for a romantic relationship" majorly grosses me out.

Basically, I disliked this reading experience. Aside from the issues I described above, everyone was hyper quirky in a way I don't like in romance, and the Latinx members of the soccer team spoke Spanish all the time to the white people, (a) which is not how bilingualism works, but many white authors do this because they feel the need to remind the reader that the character is non-white, and (b) even though this is a Los Angeles soccer team, so I assume many if not most of the Latinx soccer team members were born and raised in America so...why...would they be tossing out random Spanish words...to the white people...

In short: Do not recommend, if you want to read a M/M romance, read one by an actual queer male/enby author instead.

I've been reading—or trying to read—mystery books because that's where I see my writing career going in the future (since I've run out of the ability to emotionally invest in enough characters to ever be a career romance writer). And I've learned a couple of things about myself.

Mostly, I've learned that when I read a mystery, I want a fast-paced mystery. I've had a hard time enjoying Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries (gasp, yes, I know) because I just don't have patience for a hundred pages describing all these random townspeople living their lives before the murder happens, even if the information turns out to be important later. I don't know if this is because I used to watch a lot of police procedural TV shows (like Elementary and Lucifer) and am used to a dead body turning up right away, or if I'm more suited to reading thrillers. All I know is that if there's going to be a murder in this book, I want to see the dead body and the investigation begin ASAP.

On a related note: I might have mentioned this in previous entries, but I've tried to read some fantasy murder mysteries—since Novel #4 is my attempt at writing a fantasy murder mystery—and I find that they're often paced more like fantasy novels than like mysteries. In other words, their pacing is often quite slow. Slow enough that I usually DNF those books. I might hate the Dresden Files for being misogynistic dumpster fires, but at least they have mystery pacing nailed down correctly. Again, if I'm reading a murder mystery, I expect murder mystery pacing. I don't want very slow, drawn-out sequences explaining the fantasy elements or recruiting the protagonist to a fantasy agency; at least, not at the very beginning of the book. I want a murder investigation as soon as possible.

I don't know; maybe when it comes to books, unlike movies or TV, authors feel like they have to spend time getting the reader to like the protagonist before the murder happens? But I've always been of the opinion that getting the reader to like the protagonist should be something that can be accomplished quickly, in less than a chapter. I don't need to know everything about a character to like them; I don't need to know about their complicated family situation or relationship issues or whatever. I just need to find them intriguing and someone I can root for.

All of this is to say that I've had an awkwardly difficult time finding mystery books I like outside of Agatha Christie's Poirot books. Excluding thrillers (which are crime fiction but aren't always murder mysteries), the only other recent books I've enjoyed that are structured like mysteries have been Michael Mammay's Planetside series. (I guess technically they aren't murder mysteries, but they are investigations, at least.)

Sigh.

A Bargain of Blood and Gold by Kristin Jacques

Genre: Adult, historical fantasy, paranormal romance

I read this book in 2021 and totally forgot to write a review for it, hahaha.

I have to admit that I found this book somewhat dull, which is my main impression one year later. I'm usually all for a vampire x vampire hunter romance, but the romance in this book failed to hold my attention. I also didn't really like some of the mythology incorporated, especially regarding what happens to Johnathan. It's like the author thought "vampires vs. werewolves is too cliché, so I'll turn Johnathan into a mythical creature that has never been a shapeshifter in folklore!!" and I was like...what.

(Also, I can't help thinking if the author was inspired by The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison? Because the mythological creature Johnathan becomes is interpreted almost exactly like in The Angel of the Crows, and it's such a specific, unusual interpretation that I find it hard to believe Jacques was not aware of The Angel of the Crows.)

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Genre: Adult, fantasy, mystery

I picked this up because I was looking for fantasy murder mystery novels to read, but I found this just very...slow.

So far, I've found that the adult fantasy murder mysteries I've read are paced more like fantasy books rather than mystery books. This was no different, and I found myself continually zoning out while listening to the audiobook, so I gave up.

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Genre: Middle grade, fantasy, sci-fi

So much fun! The comps "Percy Jackson meets Yu-Gi-Oh" are definitely accurate. And I learned a lot about Chinese historical legends I never knew.

My only complaint is that Xiran is better at writing first person POV than third person, and I do wish their third person narration was better; I often felt like my brain was bouncing off descriptions and actions and I would have to reread sentences multiple times.

Sadie On a Plate by Amanda Elliot

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance

Just when I was ready to give up on genre romance, I read this book and adored it.

I love a well-written cooking competition romance, and this book absolutely hit the spot. It's a bit light on the romance since it spends most of its time describing the cooking competition, but I definitely prefer that to the opposite situation. If I pick up a book about a cooking competition, I want to read about the damn cooking competition.

I loved Sadie's pride in her heritage and her determination to bring attention to Jewish cuisine. Just so much fun and a heartwarming read all around.

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

Genre: Adult, historical, gothic

So...this book was interesting. It feels like the inverse of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's MEXICAN GOTHIC in certain ways: It's less of a slow-burn gothic horror and more fast-paced, focused more on the attempted exorcism of the haunted house and Beatriz's relationship with Andrés than the building dread of MEXICAN GOTHIC.

The prose was lush, but I felt like it occasionally became too melodramatic and tipped into the realm of purple prose. Especially when it kept describing Andrés's "darkness", which became hard to take seriously. I like the idea of different traditions of witchcraft, but why is European witchcraft inherently "darker"? There was no explanation given.

The "mystery" of the haunted house isn't much of a mystery, since we're abruptly given the answer near the end rather than following any kind of investigation. And people have said this book is about colorism and prejudice against indigenous peoples, but while those are certainly mentioned, I wouldn't say this is a book about those issues, not the same way MEXICAN GOTHIC was about racism and eugenics.

Continued my DNF/disappointing read streak, but now I'm finally reading some books that I enjoy, so...things might be looking up?

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

Genre: YA, fantasy

I've been looking for a good haunted house book, and I've seen this recommended as one. However, even though I knew this was a (loose) retelling of Jane Eyre, it still ended up being far more romance-heavy than what I was looking for. The haunted house aspect seemed to become much less important than the romance, so I DNF'ed.

I was also not comfortable with the depiction of Andi's abusive mentor figure, and the line written in the book that Andi has issues with love and intimacy because her mentor is described as being probably aromantic and asexual. :/

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

Genre: Adult, gothic, fantasy

I picked this up because I was in the mood for a haunted house story, but I ended up DNF'ing this around halfway or so.

This was very...very...slow. It finally got to the "haunted gothic house" aspect, only to suddenly introduce ritual spells, and I wasn't really looking for that kind of fantasy, so I quit.

White Smoke by Tiffany Jackson

Genre: YA, thriller

DNF around 55%. I may make another attempt to finish this book...maybe.

I picked this up because a lot of people have raved about this as a haunted house thriller, and people have also compared it to When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole, which is one of my favorite reads of all time.

But I actually found this book incredibly slow. Although creepy things happen semi-regularly, there's no sense of escalation in the first half of the book. It's like something creepy happens, Marigold complains, no one takes her seriously, she forgets about it and goes about her regular teen life. So I started to feel really bored.

Also, reading about gaslighting/other characters denying the main character's beliefs is incredibly triggering for me. I can read about a main character who doubts their own reality (which is more in line with When No One Is Watching), but other people gaslighting the main character? That always leaves me feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

Genre: YA, fantasy

This book has such a gorgeous cover. Alas, I did not enjoy this as much as I'd hoped. I would give this about 3 out of 5 stars for a rating.

The descriptions are lush, especially when it came to food and tea. I also loved how this book emphasized the diversity of fantasy China, which is something that is rarely showcased, either in fantasy or contemporary novels about China.

The political intrigue in the book felt very...muddled to me, however. And considering that the political intrigue ends up becoming more important to the plot than the tea-brewing contest, that was kind of unfortunate. I didn't particularly care about Ning's relationship with the love interest, either.

As for Ning herself, she felt like a very passive protagonist. Which is not a critique I make lightly, but I just felt like so much of the book was about her reacting to other people treating her terribly, rather than making many decisions herself (apart from her initial decision to participate in the tea-brewing contest). Which was kind of frustrating for me to read, since I wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her until she pushed back against all these terrible people. Sigh.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Genre: Adult, fantasy

Spellbinding. This is a coming-of-age fantasy novel about Xingyin, the titular daughter of the moon goddess. I would describe this as a YA crossover, though there are a few unexpectedly dark scenes in the novel. It's wonderfully imaginative in its depiction of the Celestial Kingdom and the immortal realms. I also loved how wonderfully feminist it was; Xingyin absolutely takes no BS from anyone, including her love interests. And the third act twist genuinely surprised me. Though the story felt very self-contained, I'm definitely eager to see what the author has up her sleeve for the sequel.

The Peacekeeper by BL Blanchard

Genre: Adult, alternate history, mystery

Indigenous futurism? Yes, please!

My quibbles with the book are that I wish the writing style was a little more engaging—it's a very straightforward tell-y style—and I guessed the identity of the murderer rather early on.

But I absolutely loved the world—a reimagined version of America that was never colonized. I also loved the discussion of the justice system; the author is an attorney, and you can really tell she put a lot of thought into the justice system in The Peacekeeper.

I'm excited to find out what the sequel will be about!

Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend by Katie Zhao

Genre: Middle Grade, fantasy

This was a fun adventure!

I was expecting the magical cooking to play a bit more of a role than it actually did—magical cooking isn't really the conceit of this book, just the way Winnie summons the spirit of her grandmother as part of her shaman powers. But it was fun, and I liked the dynamic between Winnie and David. I did think the identity of the antagonist was, ah, a bit obvious based on the back cover illustration in combination with early foreshadowing in the book, so I kind of wish they'd changed the back cover illustration.

Welp, I've been having a really unlucky reading year so far. I've already mentioned that I might have to give up reading romance altogether, given how negative my experience has been with reading traditionally published romance novels. But so far, I've only enjoyed Network Effect by Martha Wells and You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus out of the 16 or so books I've picked up this year.

I still have hopes for the Chinese fantasy novels coming out this year (I'm reading Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan this month, A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin comes out this month, and I'm dying to read Xiran Jay Zhao's Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor), plus the other books on my 2022 TBR post. But...I don't know, I'm losing hope a bit. :(

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Genre: YA fantasy

Probably a DNF. I might skim the ebook for this later.

This Asian-inspired fantasy has such rave reviews; plus, I liked Spin the Dawn by the same author, so I thought I would have a good time with this. The synopsis for the sequel sounded so intriguing, too; yes please to Asian-inspired books that take place in the realm of dragons.

All I can say is...did I read the same book that other people have been praising so much? Because the plotting for this was all over the place.

The inciting incident doesn't happen until two hours into the audiobook. That's a whole lot of time spent on stuff that isn't related to the main plot. Yes, I liked Seryu's character, but I don't think it's good craft to spent 20% of a book on an unrelated side plot that is mostly to set up the sequel, just saying.

Shiori was so reckless and impulsive that I put the book down multiple times because her decisions made me cringe so hard. Also...I didn't like the way the "forbidden magic" trope was used here. I could accept it if it was woven into the world, for example, the way it was executed in Descendant of the Crane by Joan He. But here, it just felt random and a tired cliché.

I normally love Emily Woo Zeller, the audiobook narrator. But she intentionally used a higher-pitched voice for this book—I guess to capture Shiori's young age—plus her voice for Kiki the paper crane was practically a screech, and the audiobook just ended up grating on my ears. I'm so sad.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Genre: Adult, historical fantasy, mystery

DNF.

I've been looking for fantasy mystery books to read since I'm writing my own, and so far I've struck out 3 out of 3 times.

This book was published a while ago, but I've heard it cited as a good example of a fantasy mystery. Except I just...don't like it. The fantasy aspect of it is definitely strange, a kind of alternate history England with time travel—though that's not the focus of the story—and literary crimes?

Overall, I found it confusingly written. It starts as an investigation of the theft of a book, but then turns into...I don't even know what. I guess it involves the theft of Jane Eyre, somehow? I can't really bring myself to care. The thief/murderer identity is obvious from the start, so this doesn't really feel like a conventional mystery. The antagonist also reminds me of Kilgrave from Jessica Jones—he just seems so overpowered that I don't feel invested in the story or how the good guys are going to triumph over him. His power level just seems way too excessive compared to the rest of the world that it doesn't make sense in my brain.

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Genre: Adult thriller

DNF/skimmed.

I picked this up solely because of the hype, but this didn't manage to overcome my Adult Thriller reading curse.

I really don't like the thriller trope of "woman drinks too much/takes drugs and is treated as unreliable by everyone in the story," which is present here. I also frankly don't care for thrillers about the daughters of serial killers.

I'll also say that I had two guesses as to the identity of the killer early on, and the right answer turned out to be one of those two. So overall, this is just a boring thriller, in my opinion.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

Genre: YA fantasy

Probably a DNF.

I picked this up because of the buzz, and also because it reminded me of a manhwa I once read (I think it was called The Water God's Bride?).

But...I really loathe the trope of "female character loses her voice," so as soon as that showed up in the third chapter, I was like...nope.

Among Thieves by MJ Kuhn

Genre: Adult fantasy

I actually finished this book!! (I mean, I read half of it and then skimmed the rest, but hey, that's better than the rest of the books on this list.)

This book had a killer premise, only to fail to live up to/execute its premise well. Which is a shame.

I'll start with the positive, which was that it was easy to read. As for the cons, well...

First: The world was boring. It was a generic, grimy, dirty, Edgy pseudo-European city. I don't think the worldbuilding is underbaked; I think it's just not that interesting.

Second: I didn't care for half of the characters. Ryia and Tristan were the most interesting by virtue of the fact that both had secrets in their past...but Tristan's secret was pretty easy to guess, so it wasn't a surprise to me. Evelyn was maybe the character with the most defined character arc. Nash and Ivan were boring as hell. I didn't care about them, and I didn't care about their romance at all.

I also didn't care for Tristan's cringeworthy crush on Ryia and wondered why it had to be in the book. I think this book was trying to go for a found family idea to counterbalance the fact that each character has a reason to betray the others, but...it kind of failed. I was never convinced that the characters cared for each other, outside of the romantic pairings.

Third: The heist was dull.

Upon reflection, I think a compelling heist book needs at least 1 of 2 things: (1) twists and turns in the heist itself, and/or (2) really cool set pieces. This book, unfortunately, had neither. Yes, the team encounters a few obstacles and has to readjust their plan on the fly, but not in a way that felt particularly interesting. And the set pieces were boring as well.

Fourth: There was barely any scheming.

The premise of this book was "a team of thieves has to pull of a heist while each planning to betray the others." I expected scheming to that effect, but there were only two moments of double-crossing (one of which had very little impact since it seemed to be setting up for a conflict in the sequel).

So...yeah. Sadly, this was a disappointment.

Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell

Genre: Adult fantasy

Trigger warnings: Rape (both off-page and on-page), torture

Another book I actually finished!!

Out of the entire list of books on this page, this was probably my favorite read...except (1) it's in a genre I don't enjoy (grimdark fantasy), and (2) I had a few serious reservations with it.

I picked it up because of the audiobook narrator, Joe Jameson (who also narrated Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall), and the audiobook is absolutely phenomenal. I'm not sure I would have made it through this book if it wasn't for his narration.

By far the strongest parts of the story were (1) Falcio's narration plus the banter among Falcio, Kest, and Brasti (which...makes it kind of unfortunate that over 50% of the book takes place with Falcio separated from Kest and Brasti), and (2) the concept of the Greatcoats. It was a joy to read about how the Greatcoats operated and Falcio's schemes to win his battles.

As I mentioned above, this is grimdark fantasy. There is a lot of violence and torture—although, oddly, Falcio gets magically healed after his torture session, which makes me question why the torture scene is even there except to be Edgy and Grim. Riju seems to have been written specifically to be The Worst City To Ever Exist, like a medieval grimdark fantasy version of Gotham City. But I did sort of like how Falcio sticks to his morals and principles in the face of a crapsack world, so there was some level of meta-level questioning of the grimdark world.

What I disliked the most about this book were the Straight Male Author-Isms. (Continued under the cut due to mention of rape.)

( Content warning: Mention of rape beow )

I'm So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson

Genre: Adult contemporary romance

I'm about halfway through, and this will probably a DNF. We'll see how much more I read of it before I have to return my library loan.

Not too long ago, there was some contentious Twitter discourse where editors, agents, and booksellers claimed that Adult fiction has to be above 80k words, or else consumers won’t buy the books.

I would argue (1) what is the data for this, and (2) are you only counting how book fanatics feel? Because I can just about guarantee you that the general public does not believe “longer books = more bang for my buck.” I’m also not sure what the wisdom is of, hypothetically, luring consumers in with longer books, but if consumers don’t finish reading the book or felt like the length of it was unnecessary, they’re not exactly going to be rushing to buy another book from this author.

Okay, I feel bad going on this rant for this specific book. If you loved this book, ignore my review. I’m just speaking as someone who is a generally voracious reader, yet has had a very disappointing reading year thus far filled with many DNFs, and I suppose this is the book that broke the camel’s back for me, so to speak. But I felt like I could at least finish it if it were 50-100 pages shorter (hence my frustration).

First, a positive: I loved the voice in this book. It was easy to read and full of personality.

However, on the topic of voice…I’m not usually someone who is against pop culture references in contemporary romances. But. I’m an American millennial, and 80% of the numerous pop culture references went completely over my head, to the point at which it actually began to interfere with my reading experience.

The bigger problem, though, is that…none of the emotions in this book made any logical sense to me, so I felt completely disconnected from the romance. And the more disconnected I felt, the less I wanted to keep reading.

As many other reviewers have pointed out, this second chance romance suffers greatly because we’re not told exactly why Hudson broke up with Kian in the past. I know traditional publishing is often allergic to flashbacks, but surely just one in-line flashback would have been fine? It certainly would have provided a lot of missing context.

There are two reasons that I felt like so much of this book didn’t make sense. One was that it felt as though the author not only didn’t show the characters’ backstory on the page, but also didn’t think it through, either:

- Why would Hudson dump Kian and then think Kian would be completely fine with pretending to be Hudson’s boyfriend again?
- Kian reacts with such anger toward Hudson in the book, yet Hudson was completely clueless that the breakup hurt Kian. Huh?

- When Hudson and Kian are flying to Georgia, they ask each other some pretty damn basic questions about each other considering they dated for two and a half years—why? (Am I supposed to believe Hudson never asked Kian why he majored in journalism when they were in college?)

The other reason was that some of the conflict felt added to the story just for the sake of drama, not because the conflict actually made sense:

- In exchange for pretending to be his boyfriend, Hudson offers Kian the one thing he desperately wants and needs: An in to Spotlight. So…why would Kian almost immediately grow so angry with Hudson that he calls off the entire fake dating scheme, instead of deciding to put up with it just for one dinner so he can get what he wants?

- Hudson claims that his parents approve of Kian, which is why he needs Kian to pretend they’re still boyfriends. Except when Kian joins the dinner with them, he immediately offends Hudson’s dad. Sure, Hudson’s mom still likes Kian, but…the logic here isn’t logic-ing?

Just to be clear, I can completely buy that Kian is the kind of person who just generally makes bad choices (although, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure whether this was the author’s intent). But even bad choices need some kind of rationale to them.

I'm just...frustrated and tired and sad that a genre (contemporary romance) that I used to enjoy has been so disappointing to me lately.

Decided to catch up on some book reviews for books I DNF'ed last year...

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

Genre: YA, fantasy

I feel bad for DNF'ing this. I think part of it was that I was blown away by Tracy Deonn's Legendborn, and while of course books by BIPOC (especially Black) authors shouldn't be in competition with each other, I just found myself not really enjoying Wings of Ebony as a fantasy book.

I did enjoy the twist about Ghizon that happened 60% or so through the book, but the whole conceit of an island with magical people didn't really grab me.

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Genre: YA, mystery/thriller

Content warnings: Sexual assault of a Native woman, violence, drug use

DNF'ed because of the sexual assault. I get that sexual assault of Native women is a huge problem and the author wanted to bring attention to it, but I'm someone who can't really take sexual assault of main characters in books I want to enjoy.

I also felt weird about the romance (even though the characters don't get together in the end). I forget how old Jamie was, but I was a little weirded out that he was a twenty-something guy pretending to be a high school student.

(But I heard about the author's pitch for her next book and it sounds dope!!)

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Genre: Adult, thriller, historical, paranormal

Content warnings: Racism, gaslighting, graphic descriptions of violence

DNF'ed when I got to the part where the female main characters' husbands were all gaslighting them about James (or whatever the vampire's name was) being a danger to their neighborhood. I can't take gaslighting as a plot device in books.

I didn't really enjoy a lot of this, though. The description of death due to a rat invasion was (a) gross, and (b) bizarre in the sense that no one seemed to think it was a strange enough event to warrant investigation. Rats don't generally kill people, y'all...

Also, I'm generally uncomfortable with male authors trying to write feminist books. [I acknowledge the argument that some such authors may be gender-questioning or closeted trans women, but don't want to get into that right now.] Like some of the lines in this book where the female characters talk about being a stay-at-home mom/wife as a noble job felt weird to me, knowing the author is a man. *Shrug*

Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

Genre: YA, contemporary romance

I really loved the way this showed how Hani and Ishu navigated their identities as Bengali diaspora. There's nothing bad that made me DNF; I just often have a hard time connecting to YA contemporary romance and grew a little bored around the halfway mark.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Genre: Adult, historical fantasy

Maybe I'll return to this book eventually...? I just got turned off after I read a part that made it seem like the main character lost a hand, but I can't find that content warning in anyone's reviews, so maybe I misunderstood.

Hard Sell by Hudson Lin

Genre: Adult, contemporary romance

I really wanted to love this book. I mean, how many Asian authors are out there writing queer romance? Except (1) the beginning was quite slow, and (2) there were some gross jokes that really turned me off the story.

*Deep, heavy sigh*

Yikes...after a relatively strong start to my reading journey in 2022 with Network Effect by Martha Wells, I've had a disappointing streak lately with respect to the books I've read. Sigh.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

Genre: Adult thriller

This is an Adult thriller retelling of Jane Eyre. At first, I super dug this—the idea that Jane was kind of a conwoman grifting her way into Eddie Rochester's money was a great spin.

After the first part in this book, though, I felt like the pacing slowed down a lot, for two reasons:

1. The whole subplot of Jane trying to ingratiate herself among the rich housewives of Thornfield Estates just felt incredibly unrealistic to me. I kept wondering why all the housewives accepted her, at least a little, instead of assuming she was a conniving gold-digger. That really killed my interest in Part 3 of the book.

2. There was no real slow build of tension regarding Eddie's wife (not a spoiler if you're familiar with Jane Eyre) because the book reveals that Eddie's wife is in the attic early on, and I thought this was a major misstep. Even if you know how Jane Eyre goes, I felt like the book could have at least tried for that gothic, "is something creepy happening in this huge mansion" vibe.

In the end, my biggest problem with this book is...well, I guess this is a spoiler, but I wanted to say this to adjust people's expectations: This is definitely not a retelling of Jane Eyre with respect to the gothic romance. Which disappointed me because I eventually shipped Jane and Eddie in the end. Sigh.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Genre: YA, thriller (?)

I'm glad I picked up this book before I saw that it was described as Cinderella meets Knives Out, because that Knives Out comparison would have severely disappointed me.

I wanted a fun, escapist read full of puzzle-solving, something akin to The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. Instead, this book is 25% puzzle-solving, and 75% high school life (including shenanigans from a Mean Girl character) + love triangle angst + Hunger Games-style makeover/media training for the rich heiress + a murder mystery that was honestly pretty boring and seemed to exist mostly to add tension to the love triangle.

So, in the end, I found this book incredibly slow. Possibly, if I read the book instead of listening to it on audio, it might have felt faster, since I'm a very fast reader, but I was tempted to DNF this book multiple times out of boredom.

Also, I know I already mentioned that the murder mystery subplot was boring, but I just wanted to say it again: That subplot was boring and it sucked. It was like the author decided that she needed an extra thread of tension and angst for the romantic subplots, so she dropped a dead girl in the story out of nowhere to make the Hawthorne brothers feel guilty and come off as shady—since it's not really a murder mystery the protagonist investigates; the murder is straightforward, it's just that the brothers never clearly state what happened and Avery never asks.

This book felt wildly unrealistic in several areas, which made me very much cringe. Avery's lawyer not telling her about all the implications of the will was straight-up legal malpractice. Avery's bodyguard seemed incredibly incompetent, especially when he put her life in danger to use her as bait to lure out her attacker. Like...come on. No actual bodyguard would do this.

The big twist of the book was pretty meh. Yes, it's a subversion of what the general reader was expect, but the subversion ended up being pretty boring in and of itself.

Two out of five star read for me, would not recommend (although maybe teenagers who haven't read as many books as I have might enjoy this more). The Gilded Wolves has better pacing and more puzzles, and this book doesn't even come close to touching the murder mystery genius of Knives Out.

The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

Genre: Adult/crossover, epic fantasy

This is looking like a DNF ~42%.

Epic fantasy and I don't really get along. I dislike the style of fantasy that has five (or more) POVs, and I'm a reader who needs either fast pacing or compelling tension (e.g. I'm happy to read suspense and slow-burn romance books).

I enjoyed the first book in the Drowning Empire trilogy, The Bone Shard Daughter, so I thought I'd enjoy the second book, but...not really.

I get that this trilogy is considered YA/Adult crossover, but I found the political intrigue part of TBSE kind of...juvenile? Basically, every time Lin visits a major island, the governor says "I don't need you" and Lin is stuck trying to figure out how to earn the governor's respect. The fact that Phalue and Ranami tell Lin to her face that the only thing they want from her is for her to abdicate made my jaw drop, and not in a good way.

I like well-done political intrigue. TBSE is not it.

I think the reason why the first book worked better for me is that there were underlying mystery threads that provided tension even when plot events were moving slowly. Those mystery threads are, for the most part, gone; I mean, Lin and Jovis are trying to figure out more about the Alanga and why some islands are sinking, but that's about it.

Sigh. Maybe I'll come back to this book at a later point, or maybe not.

A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske

Genre: Adult, historical fantasy/romance/mystery

DNF ~10%. This was a hot mess.

I wasn't interested in picking this one up until I heard that the sequel was being comped to Knives Out, and even though I think the books are meant to mostly stand alone, I became curious.

I seriously don't understand why this book has so many rave reviews. Again, IT'S A HOT MESS.

There's a trend I've noticed with Tor's fantasy books with murder mystery plots, at least among this book, Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey, and A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark: They all begin with a scene from the murder victim's POV right before they die (or, in the case of Magic For Liars, a scene of some rando discovering the dead body soon after the murder).

I think this is a narrative device that should be used carefully, not just as a cheap hook for the reader's excitement. If you can't get the reader excited in your murder mystery by introducing your main character, then...I don't know what to say.

The first chapter of this book (which was a prologue, and I don't know why they didn't just call it a prologue) was a horrible introduction to the story. It immediately removes any possibility of slow-burn suspense; the reader instantly knows Reggie Gatling has been murdered, and so Robin and Edwin wondering what happened to him loses any impact. Plus, it was just a boring creative choice to open the story with a complete rando (to the reader) being tortured for information right before he's killed.

The fantasy aspect? Was confusing as hell. I don't understand why the author set up this society so that there are *public government offices* that deal with magic, yet most people are still unaware of magic. What? And because of this oxymoronic premise, the reader is given no context to understand that Edwin doesn't have enough magic and is discriminated against because of it. You're just told that's the case, and you have to believe it, I guess.

The romance sucked. The "meet cute" between Robin and Edwin had no spark whatsoever—not of attraction, not of fascination, and not even of enemies-to-lovers initial hostility, beyond just a vague irritation on Edwin's part (for no real reason—the book does not clearly explain what Edwin's relationship was with Reggie, so his annoyance with Robin literally makes no sense). The opening chapters did nothing to establish either Robin or Edwin's characters; they both had the personality of a wet towel, except Edwin likes reading books, I guess. By the time Robin was the subject of an attempted kidnapping in Chapter 4, I was so bored that I DNF'ed the book. I don't even know who Robin is at all, and you expect me to care that he's being kidnapped???

Like. I am just baffled that this was (a) published, and (b) acclaimed. I don't know if people are so starved for traditionally published gay romances that they'll read anything, or what.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Genre: Adult, sci-fi

DNF. This novella has such rave reviews, but I was completely turned off by the jarring difference between the very literary narrative prose and then the extremely snarky, slang-heavy letters. Which also felt very flirty from the get-go, which is generally not what I want from an enemies-to-lovers romance.

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On my world, it means hope.

(The fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good)

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