Mia McKenzie's These Heathens
This book is about a small-town Black teenager in 1960 who asks her favorite teacher to help her get an abortion--and her teacher takes her up to Atlanta to stay with a rich Black childhood friend, where they hobnob with all sorts of atheists, Black celebrities, civil rights leaders, student activists, and (gasp) gay people, totally expanding the girl's worldview. It’s a little bit facile but I think would be a hit with book clubs. B/B+.
Louise Hegarty’s Fair Play
Ok, so I think this book is targeted at people who a) LOOOOOOVE golden age mysteries and will catch a bunch of lil references to Christie and Sayers (me), and b) people who like when their fiction gets a little meta (also me). The story is this: a young woman gets an AirBnB for the annual NYE/murder mystery/birthday party for her brother and all their close friends are there and it’s great. But the next morning, her brother is dead. And from there, every other chapter is a golden age style mystery where a renowned detective has come to solve the case, of course following all the rules of the genre. And the other half of the story is a young woman dealing with her grief. Really excellently done. Like clearly I am the target audience for this but I’m also just like slow clapping about it. A.
Martha Wells’ System Collapse
The second Murderbot novel picks up right where Network Effect leaves off, though it is a little slower to get started. But there is so much good stuff in here and I can’t wait to read the next one whenever it comes out!
Martha Wells’ Network Effect
The first Murderbot novel is SO GOOD!!! Wells balances kidnappings and rescue missions and the return of an old friend and various POVs with creepy alien stuff, it’s all just really well structured and satisfying.
Martha Wells’ Fugitive Telemetry
I love how Wells plays with genre in this series! This one finds Murderbot helping with a murder investigation on a station not used to murder. Solid mystery and great characters as always!
Martha Wells’ Exit Strategy
This one is fun because it feels like a kind of spy thriller at times, tense and dramatic with all sorts of action, interspersed with Murderbot reluctantly having feelings as it reunites with old friends and goes on a rescue mission. Super satisfying.
Martha Wells’ Rogue Protocol
The third Murderbot is more stressful and sadder than the first two, but I do enjoy seeing Murderbot use its skills and it gets to do plenty of that here! These really do work well as one big story.
Martha Wells’ Artificial Condition
In the second Murderbot book, Murderbot takes a job, does some research, and most importantly, makes a FRIEND. ILU, Art!!!
Martha Wells’ All Systems Red
I had planned to wait till the first season of the Murderbot tv show had wrapped up to reread the series but FUCK IT, the world is even more of a dumpster fire than usual and I need this. Super satisfying novella with one of the great narrative voices. Excellent escapism.
Cat Sebastian’s We Could Be So Good
For book club this month, we wanted to read a queer romance with a happy ending, since it’s pride month! Cat Sebastian always delivers. I also like that a lot of her books are set in time periods we don’t see that often—this one involves two dudes working at a New York newspaper in the late 1950s (when, of course, it was illegal to be gay). The characters are great (and the secondary characters too!), the romance is a nice believable slow burn, I liked all the newspaper stuff, AND there is occasionally a hilarious bit involving a cat. Just what I needed right now. A.
Kashana Cauley’s The Payback
Linda Holmes gave this one a rave and it sounded interesting—the main character is a former Hollywood costume designer who now works at a mall clothing store, drowning in debt. I loved the narrative voice and was super into this for the first half! I did not have QUITE enough suspension of disbelief for the second half to work, but it was still very entertaining and the end was fun. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in July.
Vivian Shaw’s Strange New World
I really enjoy Shaw’s Greta Helsing series and this was no exception, as Greta finds herself in America with new angel and young demon in tow. The plot here is kind of inconsequential, except metaphysically, but I did like it a lot and love all the characters. I think this is the last book in this series but it doesn’t feel like a finale, so I hope Shaw revisits it at some point, and I will definitely read whatever she writes next! A-.
Juliet Marillier’s The Amber Owl
I can’t believe I missed that a new Juliet Marillier book came out back in February! (It hasn’t gotten a US release yet, but still.) Anyway, this is the story of a young woman living a simple life in a small village, and oh yeah SHE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ANIMALS, the best power!!! But obviously she keeps it secret so she’s not burned as a witch, just chilling with her small dog companion, who is a shapeshifter! And that’s when the Ruler sends a team in to try and cut a path through the mystical forest to find its treasure, and the woman is sucked into a bunch of political shenanigans and adventures. Really great characters here, lots to do with storytelling, which I loved. This is the first of a duology and I can’t wait for part two! A/A-.
Uzma Jalaluddin’s Detective Aunty
Ok, this was a GREAT mystery. It centers on a fifty-something Muslim widow in a small town in Canada, who rushes to Toronto when her daughter is accused of murder! But she hasn’t returned to Toronto since her youngest son died and she fell into a deep depression. But soon enough she is using her skills to suss out what really happened to prove her daughter’s innocence, and figure out all the secrets her family has been keeping. I loved her relationships with her family and friends and the community in general (especially her granddaughters), and the mystery itself was pretty solid. Really satisfying read, I hope there will be more! A.
Edward Eager's Half-Magic
My friend Sarah was talking about Ivanhoe on Bluesky the other day, and it reminded me of Edward Eager (the second book in this series has quite a bit about Ivanhoe, which is how I learned about it!), so then of course I wanted to reread some Edward Eager. Classic mid-century children's low fantasy with hilarious characters and goings-on. Pure nostalgia for me--I read these over and over as a kid. Obviously there is some dated stuff but it’s still a nice brain reset. I’m gonna save the others for a rainy day, I think.
Tashan Mehta’s Mad Sisters of Esi
This book is VERY cool and a little weird! It’s fantasy and sci-fi??? There’s a pair of sisters raised inside a whale swimming through the universe, full of infinite worlds. There’s another pair of sisters, one who created the whale, and one who created a museum of collective memory—and also an island where her descendants are fated to await her long-lost sister. There’s stories and folklore and academic papers. It’s slow and dreamlike, a little bit more than I prefer, if I’m honest—I was impatient by the end—but really INTERESTING. A/A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in August.
John Wyndham’s Foul Play Suspected
Before Wyndham was a classic speculative writer, he apparently tried his hand at mysteries! This one was written in 1935 and involves a woman returning from India to find her scientist father’s house abandoned and no one has seen him in months! Can she and her cousin and his friend and the family lawyer figure out what’s going on with the help of the lawyer’s detective friend??? This book was not /great/, per se, but it was a fun read, almost a thriller at times. Some interesting political discussions too. Not nearly as interesting as the author’s other stuff though. B/B+.
