Ursula K. LeGuin's The Tombs of Atuan
My last read of 2021! This is the one Earthsea book I’ve read before, though I disagree with my past assessment, and liked it much more this time. The protagonist is a young girl, taken from her family and raised to be the priestess of an old, dark religion, one that seems in danger of being usurped. I just found her journey much more compelling this time around, and liked Ged much more too. Some really beautiful writing in this one, A-.
Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea
I haven’t read much by LeGuin so have decided to rectify that! I actually have tried to read this one before, but the protagonist is such a brat for the first few chapters (I think “sullen” is the word used to describe him most) that I gave up on it. But I am reading this whole series so had to plow ahead, and he does get much better. The back half is kind of a slow psychological quest that I was personally not super into (catch the freaking shadow already!!), but I did like how it all wrapped up. All the main characters and good guys are people of color and all the baddies are white, very progressive for a book written in the 60s! Also, some good bro friendships. B+.
Lisa Lutz's The Accomplice
I’ll read anything Lutz writes, but this wasn’t my favorite of her books. It centers on a man and woman who have been best friends since college, and then his wife gets murdered and the police are looking into them. This is interspersed with flashbacks to their college days, when she’s hiding a big secret about her past, and there are hints that something bad is going to happen. One mystery resolves in a much more satisfying manner than the other (I mean, I can’t spoilt it, but COME ON), but the ending here is weirdly bleak. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I was just not in the mood for bleak tonight. B.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on January 25th.
Fonda Lee's Jade Legacy
I came into this third volume pretty pessimistic about the fates of the main characters here, and wondering how on earth Lee would craft a satisfying conclusion. I will say she does the latter fairly well, but there are some BRUTAL parts along the way. It’s all still very exposition heavy but compelling characters make up for that. Pretty entertaining series, in all. B+.
Fonda Lee's Jade War
Lots of interesting character and plot developments in this second volume, though it was even more exposition-y than the first! There were so many lengthy descriptions of wars that their foreign allies were involved in and my eyes kept glazing over. That is balanced out with plenty of action scenes, nice character moments, and badass women. I'm definitely interested in seeing how Lee wraps this up. B+.
Fonda Lee's Jade City
This is an interesting start to a series, and I’m ready to dive into the next one for sure. It’s an Asian-influenced fantasy gangster sort of story, centered on the siblings of one of the country's powerful ruling crime families, as they deal with their plotting rivals and their own personal issues. I found all these characters compelling and the story definitely took some turns I wasn’t expecting. There are some interesting hints about pressure from foreign allies/adversaries and other political machinations. I didn’t love the end of this particular volume but I am still excited to see where things go next, B+.
Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere
The fourth Kingdoms and Empires book is another narrated in turns by two children- here, Imogen, the eldest of Bronte's girl cousins, and the titular Oscar, a boy from our own world who stumbles into theirs while looking for a mysterious skate park. Soon he’s part of a quest along with Imogen, her sisters, Bronte, and Alejandro, as they try and track down the pieces of a missing key and save an Elven town. Another really fun and satisfying adventure with a killer ending. Moriarty is so good. A/A-.
Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst
I think this makes me cry more than any other Moriarty book, for a variety of reasons! The narrator is one of Bronte's girl cousins, the middle one, who’s dealing with an odd new teacher, and trying to solve various magical mysteries and secrets. It also is kind of about depression and neglect and gaslighting? Interspersed with all the magical adventures and mysteries, of course. Really solid ending on this one, ties everything together perfectly.
Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars
The second book in the Kingdom and Empires series is actually a prequel to the first one, focusing on a group of children who have to team up to save the day, even though they are bitter rivals—one set is from the local orphanage, one from a snotty boarding school, and the story is narrated in turns by a student from each. (The bickering between the narrators is pretty funny.) And of course some familiar faces from the first book do pop up. Action-packed, bittersweet, great story.
Jaclyn Moriarty's The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone
A fourth book in Moriarty's very fun middle grade series just came out, so why not reread the first three for funsies? Moriarty is one of my favorite authors and this book is funny, action packed, moving, and clever. It centers on the titular ten-year-old Bronte, whose parents have been off adventuring her whole life, only now they’ve been killed by pirates, and now their will sends her on a journey across various kingdoms to deliver gifts to her many aunts (and have adventures along the way). Just a really fun read with a great narrative voice.
Cat Sebastian's Hither, Page
This turned out to be a seasonally appropriate read, as it’s set just before Christmas, in a small town in England in 1946. Our heroes are the local doctor (with severe PTSD) and a spy sent to investigate a murder. Great secondary characters here—I especially liked the elderly lesbians and their sassy teenage ward—and a pretty satisfying mystery. I did like the two main characters and their building romance was cute, but the end felt a bit rushed, romance-wise. Still, a nice cozy winter read. A-/B+.
Marissa Levien's The World Gives Way
I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while, and was reminded to actually do so by a couple of year end lists. I saw someone describe it as “optimistic post-apocalyptic, like Station Eleven” and I’m going to go ahead and disagree a little. See, it’s the story of a young woman, a contract worker (basically an indentured servant/slave), who will gain her freedom when their GIANT SPACESHIP makes it to a new planet, except then her wealthy employers tell her the ship is broken and can’t be repaired and everyone is going to die realllll soon, and then they kill themselves. So she goes on the run with their little baby (it kind of makes sense in context). It’s also the story of the rookie cop assigned to find her. And the story of a world that is literally falling apart. Sooooo some parts of this are pretty bleak. There are also some really beautiful moments. I would not use the word “optimistic,” however. A-.
Another weird year where I didn't read half the books I meant to read, stuck mostly to genre fiction, and did a lot of rereading. That being said, I did read some 2021 books that I loved, so here they are, in alphabetical order by author:
Monica Byrne's The Actual Star
Louise Erdrich's The Sentence
Claire Kann's The Marvelous
T. Kingfisher's Paladin's Strength and Paladin's Hope
Cat Rambo's You Sexy Thing
Rainbow Rowell's Any Way the Wind Blows
Miriam Toews' Fight Night
And here are three books I read this year that I LOVED that came out earlier than 2021:
Jordan Ifueko's Raybearer
Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe
Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population
Victoria Goddard’s Plum Duff
As usual, Goddard totally subverts my expectations of where she’s going with this series, as most of the plot here involves Greenwing and Dart getting ready to celebrate their winter holidays with their families and friends. But the stakes are raised yet again! Along the way we get more insight into their religion, several kittens are named, a unicorn gets a sweater, there are a lot of hugs, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. A/A-.
Victoria Goddard’s Love-in-a-Mist
After the major events and revelations of the previous book, this one takes on a story of a smaller scale: a murder at a snowed in manor house! Of course there is also a BABY UNICORN, an invisible butler, a blackmailer, and a couple of burgeoning romances! Plus some burgeoning political situations. Mr Dart gets to shine a bit more in this once which is nice, and now I will wrap up this review to start reading the brand new book six!
Victoria Goddard’s Blackcurrant Fool
God, I love this book. Not just because it’s the continuing adventures of Jemis and friends, as they take a road trip, encounter old friends and foes, check out a rival college, etc, but because I WILL NEVER GET OVER THAT THE PLOT HINGES ON LITERARY ANALYSIS. Poetry saves the day!! There are also interesting magical adventures and some great moments of catharsis. Everything about this book rules.
Victoria Goddard’s Whiskeyjack
The third Greenwing and Dart book has more awesome magic, friendship, action, and feelings, along with finding out a lot more about Jemis' family, about local smuggling rings, and about interpreting poetry. This also has an ending that I really love. I also really appreciate the sort of dryly hilarious narrative voice that has occasion to arise in this one. So good.
Victoria Goddard's Bee Sting Cake
The first book in this series is fun and entertaining, but this one is where it starts to get GOOD. Dragons, riddles, baking contests, long lost relatives, people frozen in time….Great pacing, great humor, great friendships, just great fun.
Victoria Goddard's Stargazy Pie
A sixth book in this series just came out, so obviously I'm doing a whole reread (perfect cozy reads for December). I've read this book many times but love it every time, because how can you not love a book full of man feelings, mysterious pies, secret societies, complicated families, bookstores, magic, and friendship?! These books are also very funny. Now, could the plotting here be a little tighter, yes, for sure, but sometimes it’s nice to read a shaggier sort of story and spend more time in the world. I am certainly here for shaggy and sweet stories.
Cat Rambo's You Sexy Thing
Y'ALL THIS WAS SO GOOD. Just everything I love in a sci-fi book all smushed together! It’s about an ex military captain and her multi-species crew, who now run a restaurant on a space station, and they’re getting ready for a big important restaurant critic to pay a visit, when things go haywire, and they find themselves on a living ship with a mind of its own (spaceships with feelings are MY FAVORITE). Adventures, yummy food, and space pirates ensue! (Note that stuff with the space pirates gets pretty grim but otherwise this is a very fun book.) This is ripe for a sequel and if one ever comes out, I will be reading it for sure. A.
Anne Ursu's The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy
I don’t have strong thoughts about this one, it was a pleasant enough read with great themes/messages and an interesting throughline about women's crafts, but I was never super invested in what was going on. I think it needed more character development from the secondary characters and maybe a little more to the climactic bits toward the end? The reveal is kind of grim but at least the book does acknowledge that these kids are traumatized by it. It did make me care about embroidery though. B/B+.
Alison Evans' Euphoria Kids
I gotta keep investigating Australian authors, because some of my recent faves are coming out of there. This was so good! It’s about a teenager who grew from a seed in their mothers' garden, who wishes for friends, and then they meet a girl made of fire (and later on the pair encounters a nameless boy). There are witches, and coffee shops, and fairies, and art class, and all three kids are trans/non-binary and kind of nerdy, and it was all just delightful. More books like this please. A/A-. (Did you like House at Cerulean Sea? This has those vibes, but I liked it much better.)
Margaret Mahy's The Magician of Hoad
This was an interesting and somewhat odd fantasy book, following three children—a boy gifted with magic, a prince, and a noble girl—as they grow up being used as pawns in various political machinations. Some parts of this I figured out and some parts surprised me, and it always seemed to zig when I thought for sure it would zag. But in a satisfying way! Really cool characters (especially the magician) and unusual antagonists. A-.
