2021 book 179

 Monica Byrne's The Actual Star

Y’all. This book was so good. Like, this is definitely going to be on my list of favorite books of the year, and if it’s not on a bunch of actual year end lists, it’s a goddamned travesty. So ok, this book is set in three different time periods—1012, following three royal children (well, one child and two teenagers) in the Mayan Empire; 2012, following a young American woman, Leah, on a trip to Belize to connect with her heritage, and the two twin brother tour guides she meets there; and 3012, in a utopia built after the ravages of climate change, with a really interesting society (everyone uses she/her pronouns in honor of Saint Leah, and there is some other gender/sex stuff going on as well), but one philosophical question might unravel everything. The characters here are great, the connections between the different time periods are great, all three time periods have compelling stories, everything about this book kind of blew my mind? Also, the author is local! I am going to be thinking about this one for a while. SO GOOD. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 14th.

2021 book 178

 Lauren Groff's Matrix

I haven’t been into literary fiction lately (boring, depressing), but I’ve stanned Lauren Geoff since her first book and will read anything she writes…. especially if it’s a book about a convent in the 1100s??? Unexpected, but awesome! Our protagonist is Marie, a seventeen year old Royal bastard, raised by a family of Amazonian lady crusaders, crushing madly on Eleanor of Aquitaine—who sends her from France to England to be prioress of a convent (since Marie is too tall and awkward to be married off). And then it is the story of Marie living at the convent, accepting her role, determined to protect her sisters and make their lives better. Somehow Groff makes this super compelling, though of course I am into stories about the inner lives (I typed “loves” there and that is true too) of women, and the community Marie builds is honestly amazing. This book is totally stunning, in all senses of the word. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 7th.

2021 book 177

 Zoraida Cordova's The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina

This was a magical realism sort of story, about the mysterious matriarch of a family who invites her many children and grandchildren to her home to receive their inheritance, because she’s about to die. But really she turns into a tree, and various magical things happen to her family (the POV characters are two of her grandchildren, who both end up with roses growing out of their bodies). I loved the first half of this! But then the action shifts to seven years later, when things are going wrong, and they have to investigate their grandmother's past to find out the source of … all this. And the story of the past is not very interesting? I was here for the characters checking out low budget museums in comic book stores and resurrecting dead relatives to get answers, but it just wasn’t super satisfying in the end. B+, I guess?

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 7th.

2021 book 176

 Dhonielle Clayton et al's Blackout

We're reading this for book club this month, because a couple of us saw this interview and were like WE MUST SUPPORT THESE AUTHORS! I hesitate to say it has a Love Actually vibe because I don’t actually like that movie, but it does have a similar structure—a bunch of interrelated characters/love stories set during one night during a blackout in NYC, culminating in a big ol block party. I am generally pretty lukewarm on YA romance, but all these stories were super cute (especially the queer ones), and since they were short they didn’t bug me too much. :) For a minute I almost started a murder board to keep track of all the connections (siblings, BFFs, cousins, etc) but then I just let the whole community wash over me. It really does gel as one story. Really well done and a very fun read. A/A-.

2021 book 175

 Cynthia Zhang's After the Dragons

This was a nice little novel about two young men in a slightly fantastic version of Beijing: one, a local, suffering from a terminal lung disease caused by pollution, who spends his time rescuing stray and injured dragons: and the other, a biracial (Chinese/Black) American in Beijing to do medical research, inspired by his grandmother, who recently died there of the same lung disease. Which maybe sounds depressing, but actually it’s weirdly hopeful? Like, the world sucks in many ways but if you can do even one thing to try and make it better… why not cuddle and rehabilitate lil dragons? Plus I thought their romance was super cute. My only complaint is that this novel is too short and I want more of it! A/A-.

2021 book 174

 Patricia Wrede’s The Raven Ring

Well, this didn’t turn out to be much of a /series/ per se, just five novels set in the same universe. This last one was pretty cute though. Our protagonist is a young woman from the warrior people, who heads to the big city to pick up her deceased mother's belongings from the army. But pretty soon a lot of mysterious people are after her, and she has to figure out why, with the help of a young noble and of a thief (there is a little bit of a love triangle, but the protagonist isn’t actually aware of it, lol). I liked the characters and story here much more than the last couple. Great ending, too. A-.

2021 book 173

 Patricia Wrede’s Caught in Crystal

This one is a little more interesting than its predecessors with both plot and characters: our protagonist is a thirty six year old widowed mother of two, running an inn, when a sorceress and a wizard with ties to her past come searching for her (separately). I actually couldn’t figure out when in the world's chronology this was meant to take place, though I had the impression it was a prequel? Anyway it’s pretty good, but ends the same way as all the other ones (final battle is somewhat anti-climactic and then there’s a heteronormative kiss, the end). I don’t really have high hopes for the last one but it’s an entertaining enough way to spend an evening, I suppose. B+.

2021 book 172

 Patricia Wrede’s The Harp of Imach Thyssel

In the third Lyra novel, a young minstrel and his friend (the song of a Duke) find a powerful magical harp of legend, and soon several people with a variety of motives are on their trail, hoping to steal it. I liked the characters here (the love interest is a lot of fun) but the plot feels more like an outline than a novel. Everything wraps up too quickly, and it follows the same story beats as the previous ones. I really need this series to be like building to something. I mean, this was /fine/, just not particularly compelling. B.

2021 book 171

 Patricia Wrede’s Daughter of Witches

Not a ton actually /happens/ in this second volume, but I enjoyed it just the same. It’s set in a different part of the world, with all new characters (though the protagonist of the previous book is mentioned). The main character here is a teenager in a fairly sexist/patriarchal society, whose parents were burned as witches several years earlier, and now she is a bondwoman to an abusive innkeeper. Until some foreigners come to stay, setting some magical adventures into motion. Most of the book involves all the characters hiding in the woods from the baddies while our heroine tries to decide how she feels about magic, but I kind of liked that? B+.

2021 book 170

 Patricia Wrede's Shadow Magic

Here I am diving into another fantasy series that I’ve somehow never read, even though I adore the author's Enchanted Forest Chronicles and the Sorcery and Cecelia books. This is a more traditional sort of fantasy, good vs evil, magical peoples (an elf analogue and some awesome and badass fox people, among others), battles, etc. Our protagonist is the daughter of a lord, but a fairly skilled one, who gets kidnapped by the baddies, setting some huge world events into action. The other POV character is her brother's merchant friend (and her love interest, though the romance is a minor part of the story, which I was fine with). Anyway, this was a very fun read, lots of cool women and interesting magic, looking forward to seeing where it goes next. A-.

2021 book 169

 Natania Barron's Queen of None

Honestly, I’m here for all these recent Arthurian stories! This one came out last year, but the library just added it, presumably because of the Green Knight movie: the central figure here is Arthur's youngest sister, Anna, mother of Gawain (plus I think the author is local!). Our story starts with a recently widowed Anna coming to Arthur to give him her husband's crown, but soon she’s become a political pawn yet again. I liked her character a lot, and loved the network of women, but wished some of the other characters (Lancelot, Gawain) were more developed, and definitely thought the back half revenge plot would have benefited from some more build up (though I did like the end). I also wished for one more pass with the proofreader; lots of homonym errors. Content warning for abusive husbands and one rape threat. B+.

2021 book 168

 Sam Hawke's Hollow Empire

Parts of this feel slow and repetitive, because they’re having the same arguments as the last book and wondering once again who is a traitor, and parts of this are kind of grim. It’s also very frustrating at times, because the protagonists are justifiably paranoid and everyone treats them like they’re nuts. The solution to the mystery is interesting enough; once again there was a teeny bit of a romance but between two women this time; I like the characters still. I guess I just wish this was all a little bit tighter. I’m honestly not sure if another book is planned in this series or not, the end feels a little ambiguous. B+.

2021 book 167

 Sam Hawke's City of Lies

I actually finished this yesterday, but my internet was down for 12 hours and I couldn’t blog! Scream emoji. So this book is narrated by a pair of siblings from a family whose secret job is to protect their chancellor, primarily from being poisoned. The brother is the current anti-poison guy (struggling with severe anxiety/OCD) while his sister is more on the spy side of things (and chronically ill thanks to a poisoning gone wrong). But soon things are even more dangerous as their uncle and the currently chancellor are murdered by an unknown poison, their young friend has to take up rulership, and the city is suddenly under siege. Who is behind all this and what the heck is going on?? Most of this is really engrossing, though some parts do drag, and the romance feels really shoehorned in (I did like the love interest and wish her character had been built up more). Interesting worldbuilding where the families run down matriarchal lines. Lots of secondary characters are gay. I’m already halfway through the sequel. A-/B+.

2021 book 166

 Felicia Davin's Out of Nowhere

So this one was a little less awesome, because I wasn’t as into the characters, minor characters from the first book—the teleporter who's trying to start a union (cool) and his best friend since childhood (Jewish), who is maybe not as straight as they both thought. The plot here is also egregiously silly—they want to kidnap a guy from an alternate reality who is the double of the bad guy in /their/ reality, and make him confess to the bad guy's bad doings. And everyone just goes along with it!! Plotting is definitely the weak element here, but the end was pretty cute. I don’t think I’ll read the third one in this series; I was hoping it’d be about some of the local lesbians, but it’s about two of the stoic dude scientists I don’t care about. The author has a fantasy series I might check out instead. B.

2021 book 165

 Felicia Davin's Edge of Nowhere

I was in the mood for something outer spacey, and this super cute queer romance fit the bill for sure. Our one hero is Kit, who has a rare teleportation ability and a mysterious background and an adorable found family! Our other hero is Emil, a large botany nerd who runs a crew on a space station doing weird experiments with the stuff Kit teleports through! Also, there are some cats! Pretty much everyone in this book is queer (Emil is definitely bi and I had the vague impression Kit was as well), the romance is cute, the adventures are fun, there is maybe a little too much made-up science about teleportation but it becomes relevant to the plot so whatever. This is the first of a trilogy and I am immediately starting book two. A-.

2021 book 164

 Robin Stevens' Once Upon a Crime

And this is truly the end of the Wells and Wong series, sniff sniff! This is a collection of shorter stories set in the world, a couple published before but the rest new. Always nice to see these girls in action, and I was glad to see a couple stories set after the events of Death Sets Sail (one of those being a prequel of sorts to Stevens' upcoming series about Hazel's littlest sister—though I don’t buy for a second that Hazel wouldn’t listen to her sister about a murder!). A-.

2021 book 163

 Terry Pratchett’s Snuff

This is the final Watch book, and I definitely have that book hangover feeling, where you finish a book/series and are bereft that it’s over and nothing else you start will be as good. I mean, just a bunch of crying emojis all around. Anyway, in this one, Sam and his family are off on a vacation in the country, but of course Sam immediately sniffs out some ill doings. Sybil is great here, and Young Sam reminds me of many small boys I have known. Sigh. Book hangover. A.

2021 book 162

 Terry Pratchett’s Thud

Here we find Sam dealing with rising tensions between dwarves and trolls, exacerbated by the murder of a dwarf rabble rouser, not to mention hiring his first vampire to the watch, and trying to get home in time to read his little dude a bedtime story. Very entertaining all around, if not at the emotional depths of its predecessor. Loved to see the ladies of the watch going out for a girls' night, extra points for that! A/A-.

2021 book 161

 Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch

This was…weirdly devastating? Things start off with Sam's wife in labor, but he’s on the hunt for a serial killer—but then a magical storm sucks them back in time, to thirty years earlier, as the city is on the brink of a revolution—and young Sam is just starting his job on the Watch. Now our Sam has to mentor his younger self, keep history on track, and keep everyone safe. We also get some glimpses into the past of various other characters, which is interesting. But this was kind of a gut punch by Discworld standards! ILU Sam. A.

2021 book 160

 Terry Pratchett’s Fifth Elephant

Well, I /loved/ this one! Sam is off to a neighboring land for diplomatic reasons, with Lady Sybil, Cheery, and Detritus in tow, but soon he is caught up in politics, trying to investigate a stolen scene of importance, and dealing with dwarves, vampires, and werewolves. Sybil gets to do some stuff in this one, which I always appreciate, and it was in general just really funny and sweet and silly and action-packed. Great stuff. A.

2021 book 159

 Terry Pratchett’s Jingo

This Discworld City Watch book finds their city on the verge of war with the local Middle Eastern analogue (lots of characters spouting racist stuff, but clearly not approved of by the author). This drags a little compared to some of the other ones, but still has some great moments, and we actually get to see Sam's wife for a change! B+.

2021 book 158

 Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay

So I have actually read this one before, because it’s about golems, but I enjoyed it much more this time, since I had all the relevant character backstories and was much more invested in them. I might also just have more of a sense of humor now than I did in 2008. Anyway, the watch is dealing with a case of mysterious poisoning, AND some mysterious murders, not to mention dwarf Cheery Littlebottom is actually a girl dwarf and is trying to let ppl know about it (the internet is right: Pratchett would not have been a terf). Props for most of the golems having Yiddish names. A/A-.

2021 book 157

 Terry Pratchett’s Men at Arms

The second Guards books finds the team dealing with some new diversity hires—namely a dwarf, a troll, and a woman. But soon the town is in an uproar thanks to a killing spree with a mysterious weapon and the Watch is on the case! I am super here for Sam Vimes, Corporal Carrot, and the rest of these silly and lovable people. A/A-.

2021 book 156

 Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!

 Recent events have made me want to read some Pratchett, and honestly there’s still a lot of the Discworld I’ve never gotten to (I’ve mainly just reread all the ones with the Witches and Tiffany Aching). So now I’m getting to the city watch books, only here they’re the Night Watch, led by a drunk Sam Vimes, with an eager new volunteer joining the force. But they’ll have to get their acts together when a magically summoned dragon starts coming to town. Luckily they have the help of the local (orangutan) librarian and a wealthy woman who breeds little (adorable) dragons. Anyway this was all very funny, super entertaining, with Pratchett's trademark great characters. Just what I needed and I can’t wait to read more. A/A-.