2021 book 199

 Sonia Hartl's The Lost Girls

Are vampire books coming back? If so, I hope they’re in this vein (pun very much intended). It’s centered on Holly, whose boyfriend turned her into a vampire when she was sixteen, and thirty years later, dumped her. And it turns out she’s not the first he did that to, as his previous two exes, also teen vampires, come to enlist her in a plot to kill him so they can be free. And maybe to stop him from doing it to the super cute new girl in town, too? The characters and relationships are kind of underbaked here, and I had a lot of questions about like why the people in town didn’t seem to notice the dead bodies these girls leave everywhere??? The villains are over the top, but I liked the girls' friendship stuff, and it ended up going some places I didn’t expect. Solid ending for sure. B+.

2021 book 198

 Miriam Toews' Fight Night

Man, this is one of those gorgeous and slightly devastating novels that Toews does so well. It’s narrated by a nine year old girl, living an unconventional life in Toronto with her heavily pregnant actress mother and her eccentric grandmother. Some of the details/themes will be familiar if you’ve read other novels by Toews, but the narrative voice here is so great (and the grandmother is so wonderful) that it didn’t even matter. Hilarious and bittersweet. A.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on October 5th.

2021 book 197

 Rebecca Roanhorse's Black Sun

It took me a while to really get into this and I almost put it town several times (one character was conceived to be the vessel of a god, and is subject to a fair amount of abusive tutoring; another character is one of four Priests of the local religion but is frustratingly clueless about the politics that entails and I found reading her sections very annoying). Luckily one of the four POV characters is a half mermaid lady sea captain and she rules, plus there is some really interesting religion/magic going on, so I kept plowing along, and by the end I was feeling it. I am mildly curious about events and will probably read the second book when it comes out. B+.

2021 book 196

 Jesse Q. Sutanto's Dial A for Aunties

I read this for book club, and I’ll just say: this wasn’t for me. I had hopes that it would be fun and/or funny—it’s about a girl whose family runs a wedding event business (she’s the photographer), and they set her up on a blind date but she accidentally kills the guy, and her mom and three aunts help dispose of the body—all right before/during a massive wedding weekend! But like at no point does she ever act like an actual human being; even the flashbacks find her acting like someone on a teen soap. Like, there is filial duty and then there is codependency. The whole thing is totally contrived and very predictable, except for when it’s ridiculous and frustrating (everything with the sheriff). This book made me DISLIKE A LESBIAN. I did not enjoy reading this at all and honestly would have given up if I didn’t, you know, run the book club. That being said, of the two friends I’ve spoken to about this, one felt the same way I did, and the other LOVED it. The mix of (attempted) dark comedy and sappy romance wasn’t my personal fave, but YMMV. C.

2021 book 195

 Naomi Novik's The Last Graduate

I don’t want to be spoilery here, since this book isn’t out for a week, so I will just say it is a very good follow up, I read it in one sitting and stayed up way past bedtime, I cried more than once out of niceness, there are hilarious mice familiars, and teamwork and friendship, and the end PUNCHED ME IN THE GUT. What!! WHAT!!!! 

Marking this with the “LGBTQ+” tag because the protagonist seems to be bi and a couple of the secondary characters are gay/lesbian. I feel like the race stuff is handled better too (had some mixed feelings about the one Jewish character, for reasons I can’t pinpoint, but the author is Jewish so I’ll just give it a shrug). 

I mean… is this going to be a trilogy? God, I hope so, because I don’t know if I can handle it otherwise. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 28th.

2021 book 194

 Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education

I’m rereading this because the sequel is out soon—I loved this when I first read it, but soon after that, people online pointed out various problematic/insensitive things about how race was handled, which I hadn’t noticed bc I am a clueless white lady. I think they actually managed to edit some of the more egregious cases out, because I didn’t see a couple of specific examples I was primed for. Otherwise this is still a really fun YA fantasy about a snarky, grumpy girl at a murderous magical school, trying not to give into her evil fate, begrudgingly making friends, trying to survive, etc. Normally I hate romances in YA books, but the one here is so funny (and slow building) that I was rooting for it. Hoping the sequel is more of the entertaining same.

2021 book 193

 Victoria Goddard's Petty Treasons

Look, I’ll read anything Goddard writes (and have), but I’m not sure this novella was…necessary? I mean, I love spending time with Cliopher and the Emperor, but their working relationship and growing friendship has been pretty well covered, at length, in The Hands of the Emperor and, to a lesser extent, in The Return of Fitzroy Angursell. So a novella about Cliopher's early days as the Emperor's secretary is trodding pretty well-worn ground. The writing here also tends toward the overwrought, which is not my personal favorite (though there are some nice funny moments too). B+?

2021 book 192

 Martha Wells' The Harbors of the Sun

I also liked this one a little less on reread, because I’m just not interested in people exploring weird ancient cities at length. Luckily this was balanced out by more interesting queen on queen matchups and basically adopting a group of reformed bad guys, not to mention the fights to save their species from genocide. But I’m kind of meh about this series now.

2021 book 191

 Martha Wells' Edge of Worlds

This one is not super great on a reread. It starts strong but soon all the characters are on yet another interminable journey to explore yet another mysterious ancient city. I’m interested in their relationships and their court politics and rules and families, not in ten chapters where they’re trapped in a building. And then when it finally starts to get interesting again, it abruptly ends! At least it makes me eager to dive into the last one. 

2021 book 190

 Martha Wells' Stories of the Raksura Volume Two

Similar to the previous book, this contains two novellas and assorted short stories about the Raksura. In the first novella, we see a young Moon in his pre-Raksura days; in the second, an anxious Moon awaits the birth of his children and faces a new threat in the forest. These are fine and I always like the family stuff, but was mainly reading this to fill in the gaps between books three and four.

2021 book 189

 Martha Wells' Stories of the Raksura Volume One

I was going to skip the two books of novellas/stories this go-round, but when I started book four I remembered there was some relevant stuff in one of them, and anyway, I tend to be a completist. The first novella finds our usual cast of characters on a fairly typical adventure (though does begin the redemption arc for the resident asshole). The second deals with the founding of their court, a story that involves lots of diplomacy, politics, a little romance, basically everything I love. The two short stories provide some background but aren’t super necessary. Still entertaining.

2021 books 187 and 188

 Martha Wells' The Serpent Sea and The Siren Depths

I read these (the second and third Raksura books) back to back, but didn’t get a chance to blog the first one between Yom Kippur services and a failing iPad battery. And I already forget what happened in which! In the first they’re trying to build up their new home, and in the second we find out where our protagonist came from, and there’s lots of politics/diplomacy around that, at least until the creepy bad guys come around. Still lots of great relationships, I just really enjoy these characters and their world (aside from the creepy bad guys).

2021 book 186

 Martha Wells' The Cloud Roads

Once again I am rereading a fantasy series and ignoring the MANY, MANY unread books on my kindle. But I was talking to someone about Martha Wells last week and the heart wants what it wants! Anyway, this is an awesome start to an awesome series that puts the fantastical in fantasy, as a guy who has no idea where he came from or even what kind of species he is is finally found by another of his kind, and whisked into a world of intrigue, action…and cuddles (let them cuddle you, Moon!). Will he allow himself to be adopted into their court? Will they fight off the extremely creepy bad guys? Are there flying people AND flying boats? I love all the relationships building up here and honestly want to immediately start to reread the next ome even though it’s bedtime. So good.

2021 book 185

 Ada Hoffman's The Outside

So this book is set in a world where humans created super advanced AIs that became gods (and then forbade humans from using advanced technology lol). Our protagonist is a postdoc whose advisor mysteriously disappeared, so now she’s in charge of a weird spaceship science thing. You know what, this was really interesting but trying to explain the plot is going to break my brain (a recurring theme of this book, ironically?). Lots of physics, metaphysics, and a touch of Lovecraft?? I was here for the cute lesbians and the bionic angels but the “what is REALITY” stuff is not exactly my jam. I wanted more GOD STUFF! If you’re into thought provoking sci-fi, though, this may be your jam! B/B+.

2021 book 184

 Juliet Marillier’s A Song of Flight

The third book in Marillier’s Warrior Bards series is an entertaining read, though I really don’t feel like it’s the end of the story! Lots more secret missions, encounters with magical beings, a little bit of romance (two secondary characters are a very cute gay couple), a young woman learning to take on a leadership role, etc. There’s no torture in this one, bonus! A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 21st.

2021 book 183

 Seanan McGuire's When Sorrows Come

This series is now fifteen books deep and shows no signs of coming to a conclusion, but I’m in it for the long haul. In this one, Toby is finally getting married (in Toronto, lots of Tim Horton's jokes), if political crises and assassination attempts don’t get in the way. I actually liked this one! I mean still a little too much of “let me explain the fairy genetics of every single type of fairy” and 14 books worth of exposition, but entertaining. For some reason (I assume because it’s not plot relevant per se), there’s a “novella” at the end that picks up right where the book proper leaves off, so if you’re wondering “but what about that cake??” don't worry, you will hear about the cake in the “novella” (I’m sorry, it’s so ridiculous that it’s not part of the actual book when it’s relevant to the actual book!). All that aside, fun times. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.

2021 book 182

 Ruth Ozeki's The Book of Form and Emptiness

So I will read anything by Ruth Ozeki, and my hopes were especially high for this one based on the pre-pub buzz and of course on her previous novel, A Tale for the Time Being. And parts of this definitely lived up to said hopes, and some other parts kind of stressed me out. This is the story of young teen Benny (and to a lesser extent, his mother), as told by a Book with occasional interjections from Benny himself. Benny's musician father has died in a fairly ridiculous accident, and now Benny is hearing voices of objects around him. Meanwhile his mother, grief-stricken and traumatized by childhood sexual abuse, has become a hoarder. I loved the meta parts of this; everything with Benny and his book was great. I also loved all the denizens of the Library (of course). The novel deals unflinchingly with drug abuse, trauma, grief, and mental illness, and that makes it a little hard to read at times. This book is great, but the ending didn’t a hundred percent work for me. Ozeki creates such interesting worlds, though. Definitely worth a read. A/A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 21st.

2021 book 181

 Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe

Well, this was awesome in every way. Our main character is teenage Ellie, a Lipan Apache girl whose family knows the secret to raise ghosts (except they don’t raise human ghosts, only animal ghosts, which means Ellie has a GHOST SPRINGER SPANIEL!!!) (she’s also asexual but that’s not relevant to the plot). When her cousin dies in an accident, but he appears in a dream to tell her he was murdered, she and her best friend (and her mom and other people) have to figure out how to prove it, and also what is up with this weird town where the murderer lives? I thought the magic in the book was really cool, there are just all these different magical systems (and vampires!) but it’s all just presented as matter of fact with no lengthy exposition. And all the characters are great, all the ghosts are great, all the family stories and legends are GREAT, everything about this was great. The author has another book due out this fall I think and I can’t wait to read it. A.

2021 book 180

 Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree

I’ve honestly had this on my kindle for like two years, but every time I started it I was kind of meh about it and read something else instead. But recently I downloaded tiktok and basically all the videos I see are queer book recommendations, and like 90 percent of them feature this book! And I was up for an 800 page fantasy novel! So this does have some queer characters but the romance is pretty minimal; there’s mainly lots of politics between countries with different religions that all hate each other, and a lot of pro-dragon vs anti-dragon sentiment, and good and evil dragons, etc. I really liked most of the characters here, and all but one of the POV characters were really interesting and had fun arcs (I still don’t see the point of the alchemist character). Parts of this were a little slow but it builds to a pretty satisfying climax (maybe more so if you are more into battle scenes than I am). It was fine but I didn’t end up LOVING it, B+ I guess?