Hi everyone! Since I never seem to write normal chronological monthly wrap-ups in a timely fashion, I thought this time I would just split up what I've read so far into a few fun categories, and tell you what I think of those book as they pertain to that category.
This time, our categories are:
- I Read it For the Discourse (or: worst reads)
- Mid, but I Liked it For That (not to be confused with Mid, And That's an Unforgivable Crime)
- Good Reads
- I am So So Normal (or: best reads)
Let's begin with the worst.
I Read it For the Discourse
Recently I've become aware that some people have what they call "Zeitgeist Reads," where they read a book that is currently big in the zeitgeist out of (sometimes morbid) curiosity. That's basically what I do, except I call it "reading for the discourse." Sometimes I just want to read a book so that I can participate in the discourse surrounding it from the full confidence of having read the book in question.
But sometimes reading for the discourse just isn't worth it. That's important to acknowledge too.
Onyx Storm, when compared to Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, is not exceptional. It has all the same problems in terms of writing, plotting, and worldbuilding. If anything, it's a little more incoherent. I might suggest it received even less editing, if I genuinely believed such a thing were possible. It's jam packed with plot points and action sequences and reveals, and yet manages to be fascinatingly boring. Very much a bring-your-own investment kind of experience. I'm not sure whether I'll convince myself to read the next installment of these extremely bad books, but rest assured, I'm sure it'll be more of the exact same thing.
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is not, despite all allegations to the contrary, a repackaged Dramione fanfiction. Well, it's not...exactly that. Brigitte Knightley is best known (or best known to me) for her post-canon fanfic Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Falling in Love, a fanfic which is actually still available to read on Archive of Our Own. I read a couple of chapters of it, and I actually kind of wish Irresistible Urge WAS a rewrite of Mortifying Ordeal, because I enjoyed what little I read of Mortifying Ordeal a lot more than I enjoyed Irresistible Urge.
All this to say, Irresistible Urge has never been previously published as Harry Potter fanfiction, Dramione or otherwise, but like...it could have been. If you told me that Brigitte Knightley happened to have a manuscript for a Dramione fanfic that she hadn't yet posted, and then she ctrl+Fed all the Dracos and Hermiones out of it, I'd more or less believe you. This is a book that very much wants to appeal to Dramione fans, even if it's not a literal repackaged fanfic.
I do think they would have been better off giving it a name that didn't evoke her most popular fanfic, though, seeing as there's been a lot of confusion already about the relationship of this book to Mortifying Ordeal.
But was the book good?
I think some people will like it. I didn't, especially. It has a really wordy style, which is normally a plus for me, but felt like a bit of a slog in this case. You don't necessarily need to use every rare word you know in one book. I also had big issues with the worldbuilding. I had no idea what time period or time period analogue we were supposed to be in - there are carriages (and no cars?) but also refrigerators and electricity (at least some of the time). Learning that the author describes it as "gaslamp fantasy" on Goodreads did not actually clarify things. Or, like, it made me realize what she was going for, but it also irritated me because she missed the gaslamp fantasy ballpark in a big way.
The dynamic between the leads is...fine? This is a duology-opener, by the way, and the two main characters are still not together by the end of the book. So, small props for genuine slowburn, but man, I really did not care all that much about the romance being developed. I just didn't feel much chemistry between the leads, plus I wasn't invested in either of them as characters to an especially strong degree, and the silly plotline revolving around going to different random locations and trying to heal the MMC was just...boring to me. I cared a little bit about the romance at the very end, but that was it.
There's also way too much dick and balls type humor. If you're someone annoyed by constant jokes about that (plus general sex jokes) I don't think you'll enjoy this.
Lastly, I read We Were Liars. This book is over 10 years old, so it's arguably not part of the current zeitgeist, but there IS an adaptation coming out soon (as I myself discovered after reading the book), and I did want to know what the hype was about, and it was available on Libby, so here we are.
I was...deeply unimpressed with We Were Liars. I was already a bit unsure if it would be for me after the extremely dramatic metaphor on the first page, where Cadence says her father shot her in the chest as he packed up his things to leave her and her mother. But I was like, this book is really popular, and someone told me once that it was a King Lear retelling, so I'll keep going.
So I kept going. The writing style continued to not be for me. As for the big central mystery/tragedy...I was intrigued until I found out what actually happened, and how, and then I was just annoyed.
The thing is, this book wants to be a tragedy. King Lear is a tragedy. But tragedies have to have a sense of catharsis, and you also have to feel like the outcome of a tragedy is inevitable, no matter how badly you wish it could have turned out differently. Whether through the intractability of the circumstances or the inability of characters to overcome their fatal flaws, the tragedy of a tragedy is that they cannot overcome the circumstances or natures that lead them to this point.
But the tragic thing that happens in We Were Liars...is ridiculously avoidable. And it very easily could have turned out differently. And I, personally, was not inclined to feel much sympathy for Cadence or her dumbass rich family after I learned the truth.
Mid, But I Liked it For That
All three of these books have really great covers.
Listen, don't crucify me for putting a T. Kingfisher book in this category. I liked Swordheart. In fact, I've liked every T. Kingfisher book I've read! But for me, her more romancey books tend to land in the 3-3.5 star zone. I enjoy them, they make for easy reading and good palette cleansers, but they're my favorite and I don't think they're the best.
One of my quibbles with Swordheart was actually the way that it left a certain thing unresolved at the end. I realized why that was the case when I read the author's note and learned that there are plans for sequels (much in the same vein as the Saint of Steel series) but I was still...a bit annoyed, as a reader who approached this book expecting more of a standalone experience. I felt similarly when I finished Paladin's Grace and found out the most interesting story thread was going to be left open for other books in the series to pick up. I do recommend Swordheart if you want a fantasy romance with a very whimsical, quirky feel but also older protagonists.
Wish Upon a K-Star is actually a spin-off to a previous Kat Cho Kpop romance book, Once Upon a K-Prom. I didn't realize that until after I started reading. I don't plan to go back and read Once Upon a K-Prom, mainly because the female lead in that one is a regular girl outside the Kpop industry, and I tend to find these sorts of books more interesting if both main characters are in the industry. (See also, my like for ASAP and dislike of XOXO by Axie Oh, and my enjoyment of Flip the Script by Lyla Lee).
I found Wish Upon a K-Star to be pretty fun and cute, although I was more invested in the main character's personal journey than in her romance with the male lead. She's dealing with anxiety from her troubled public image, an overbearing mother, a more-famous older brother, former group-mates that seem to hate and avoid her, and now having to fake-marry someone she used to have a crush on as a trainee. She has a lot going on! And that's before the whole crazy stalker plotline.
What I didn't especially like was this book's decision to reference real Kpop idols at certain points. What do you mean the fictional male lead of this book is friends with Shuhua from G-Idle? What do you MEAN you're trying to win a Leebit from the claw machine game? Why are we doing this? For me, these kinds of references are a little too much and kind of teeter on the line of being sort of inappropriate to make. Idols are real people, after all. I don't know. I just didn't like it.
Kill Creatures is a YA thriller coming out later this year about a girl whose three best friends disappeared a year ago - but one the one-year anniversary of the disappearance, one of them returns, alive. The main character is very confused about this, because after all, she's the one who killed all three of them.
The premise of this book is super intriguing and I really loved the sense of creeping unease throughout, as well as the exploration into how painful teenage female friendships can be. But ultimately, the ending let me down a bit. I felt like the choices made at the end of the story weren't the most interesting, and didn't fully deliver on the potential I thought the story had. I'd still recommend it, though. I needed a break from fantasy (crazy words from me, I know) and this was a good palette cleanser.
It was also interesting reading this book at the same time as We Were Liars, because both books deal with memory and unreliable narrators. Kind of interesting. I liked this one better, though, obviously.
Good Reads
Once more, some very pretty covers in this category. These are books that I enjoyed and thought were good, and they land in a general 4 star kind of place for me.
Hemlock & Silver is a bit closer to what I prefer most from T. Kingfisher than Swordheart was. It's a bit lighter on romance (so light that I was kind of confused why there still ended up being a romance subplot) and has a dark, fairytale-inspired plot with some pretty imaginative worldbuilding. Also, you can tell when reading it that T. Kingfisher got really into researching poisons and antidotes at some point, and really wanted to write a book featuring an antidote researcher. We love that for her.
Tordotcom is trying to market this book as a Snow White reimagining. I recommend largely ignoring this. While Hemlock & Silver has more in common with Snow White than A Sorceress Comes to Call did with The Goose Girl, I still would consider it a fairly loose reimagining, and definitely not a retelling.
For reference, I consider retellings to be stories that stick to the original plot of their source material pretty closely and just expand or add onto it, whereas reimaginings would be stories that remix plot elements into something more or less original (although still very much in conversation with the source). I wouldn't even consider A Sorceress Comes to Call to be a reimagining of The Goose Girl. It has more in common with Tangled, to me.
White Tears/Brown Scars is the only nonfiction I've read this year so far. I do hope to read more nonfiction this year. I'm not usually very good about it. I really enjoyed this one (although it's not a very happy read) and I feel like I learned a lot. Some sections on the historical side were more familiar to me, and some were new info. One thing that stuck with me is the discussion about how in sexual assault cases, men are most likely to be persecuted when the case is about a man of color assaulting a white woman, because of the long history of white supremacy creating anxiety about nonwhite men stealing/defiling white women. I knew a little about that already, but I hadn't seen that particular consequence of white supremacy pointed out in that way before. Upsetting, but really interesting.
To Shape a Dragon's Breath was a reread for book club! I still really enjoyed it on the second read, but I think I would maybe lower my rating from 5 stars to 4 or 4.5. The world that Moniquill Blackgoose has built is really fascinating, but there is a lot of exposition and worldbuilding, and although it doesn't precisely bother me, I think it does weaken the book a bit. Also, in future books about Anequs, I think it would be nice to explore some more of her interior struggles and see more character growth from her. I love her as a character, but she has sort of a flat character arc in this book.
As for The Incandescent, I've been anticipating it for a LONG time, before it was officially announced, because Emily Tesh talked about it at a bookstore event I happened to be at! I thought the idea of "magic school story but from the adults/professors' perspective" sounded super interesting. And I'm glad I finally got to read this book - although, sad to say, it doesn't quite come up to my love for Some Desperate Glory. In a slightly similar vein to To Shape a Dragon's Breath, this book just goes on and on a bit too much at times, although in this case, it's the minutiae of teaching, rather than the magical chemistry.
I did find this book interesting even when it got very deep into the teaching minutiae, because I tend to enjoy books about people being good at their jobs, even with slow pacing and not a lot of plot. But it could have been trimmed down a little to help the pacing a bit.
I also think that Some Desperate Glory is a bit easier for me to get into (as a big Mass Effect/sci fi fan and as someone who was Kyr's age within the last 10 years) compared to The Incandescent. I think it may really hit once I'm less young myself. So overall, I recommend, and I will continue to eagerly await Emily Tesh's future projects.
I've already reviewed the Emilie Adventures by Martha Wells, so I guess I should keep this part brief. Suffice to say, I really liked them. Emilie is a little different from every other Martha Wells protagonist I've read, but I admired her resolute practicality and determination to find ways to help, even in situations where she was pretty out of her depth. A very fun steampunk adventure and I'm a little sad that there are only two books in the series.
Among Ghosts is the latest/upcoming Rachel Hartman book. It takes place about 100 years before Seraphina and Tess' books, and follows a young boy whose town is experiencing some troubles. To put it very vaguely.
Alas, I did not love Among Ghosts in quite the way I loved Seraphina or Tess of the Road. I liked it, and I think someday I want to return to it and see how it grows on me. I recommend it, and I would rate it at least 4 stars. I think I just had a bit of trouble with the themes, as well as how the book ends on a pretty open, unresolved note. And maybe my expectations were set unfairly high by how much I liked the previous four books I read of Rachel Hartman's. Also, this book is multiple POV, like In the Serpent's Wake, so I don't know that I got as attached to any singular character as I could have been.
I will say that this book reminded me a bit of Strange the Dreamer, despite being...different in almost every way. Funny how that works sometimes.
I am So So Normal
I've been on a bit of a Rachel Hartman kick recently, as you can probably tell. And I've been having a great time. My arguable least favorite of her books, Among Ghosts, is still really good, and I absolutely loved Shadow Scale and Tess of the Road. I like the world she's set up, and I like the characters and stories she chooses to explore within that world.
Oh, here's a comparison. The Shadow and Bone books by Leigh Bardugo are a pretty traditional fantasy chosen one story. When she wrote Six of Crows, she wanted to write something different - a story about characters who are outcasts, rather than chosen, who are trying to survive in the world rather than necessarily save it. And then she pivoted again for King of Scars and wanted to explore the story of characters who AREN'T chosen ones necessarily, but who have chosen to take responsibility for trying to make a better world.
In kind of a similar vein, I feel like Tess of the Road is Rachel Hartman's reaction to herself. In Seraphina, she wrote about a young woman who goes from being isolated because of her differences to finding community because of them, and who becomes something adjacent to a saint. Tess is not different or exceptional in the ways that Seraphina is. She's not half dragon, she has no powers, and she does not have the ear of the queen. Tess is a girl who is punished severely for things that aren't her fault, for choices she made under duress and without the knowledge she should have had. And getting to see her go on a journey to reclaim her knowledge of herself as a person with value is really wonderful to see, and almost more magical than Seraphina's. I love Seraphina, but none of us is Seraphina, in the sense that none of us are half-dragons with mysterious mental powers. Tess is ordinary, but also extraordinary.
The way that Tess' story expands in In the Serpent's Wake was also really interesting. In the Serpent's Wake reminded me of Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore, because both expand the scope of their stories and are multi-POV books in previously single-POV series. I think In the Serpent's Wake is more successful overall than Winterkeep, although I do also understand why some people dislike it somewhat as a sequel to Tess of the Road (but I really loved some of the new characters, so I was okay with having less focus on Tess' personal journey).
Okay, I need you to ignore the covers this time, and just listen to me when I say that I am so obsessed with these books and this series.
This series shouldn't be as hard a sell as they are. I don't even think I can get my bookstore to carry them, because they're nonreturnable. This is also an unfinished series; it's supposed to eventually be 7 books, but book 4 was published over 20 years ago. In the interim, Rosemary Kirstein has dealt with cancer and probably other issues (she's self-publishing the books), so even though she's still working on the series, it's unclear if she's going to be able to release more books.
But I still think these books are worth reading. They were definitely worth it for me. I loved getting to experience the slow unfurling of this world with Rowan, our main character, and I really want to see the end of her story someday.
I have a lot to say about this series, but a lot of it is spoilery, and this is one case where I do really think it's worth it to just go into the book and experience it. But basically, this is a series about a pre-industrial world (NOT medieval as some reviews have said) where there is a group of people called the Steerswomen who travel the world gathering and sharing information. They're historians, scientists, scholars, and researchers, and they freely share information with anyone who will agree to freely answer their questions in return. Rowan is studying a certain kind of mysterious jewel when she catches the attention of the wizards who also exist in this world, and it begins to become clear that the jewels are the first step in a journey that will rewrite her understanding of the world as she knows it.
Please read it. These books are rich and contemplative and intelligent and interesting. There are strong female characters, very little in the way of gender roles/gender discrimination, and overall they're just fascinating.
This has been my January/February wrap up. I think I like this format better than the chronological list...but for the timeline-curious, I will pop a bare-bones list below.
January
- Shadow Scale ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
- Emilie & the Hollow World ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Emilie & the Sky World ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
- The Steerswoman ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Onyx Storm ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
- Tess of the Road ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Swordheart ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- In the Serpent's Wake ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
February
- The Outskirter's Secret ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- The Lost Steersman ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Hemlock & Silver ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- The Language of Power ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
- White Tears/Brown Scars ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Among Ghosts ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- To Shape a Dragon's Breath ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Wish Upon a K-Star ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
- The Incandescent ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
- Kill Creatures ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
- We Were Liars ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
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