The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler is a novella in the upcoming 2021 Neon Hemlock Novella Series. I know Tobler best from her editorial work at Shimmer Magazine, and oh! how those stories she gathered glimmered and glowed. This novella felt like a continuation of that wild wonder. Necessity of Stars, cover by … Continue reading The Necessity of Stars & The Bletted Woman
Category: books
Spiritfarer and The Empress of Fortune and Salt
This is going to be a little different from my usual comparative reviews because I found a novella and a videogame that both made me feel the same inside! Spiritfarer by ThunderLotus Games Spiritfarer by ThunderLotus Games is a cozy management game that just happens to be about reminiscing before dying. Your character, Stella, gives … Continue reading Spiritfarer and The Empress of Fortune and Salt
Guest Post by Neve Maslakovic
Recently, I read and loved All the Whys of Delilah's Demise by Neve Maslakovic. I was struck by the genre blending and the dark turn at the end (no spoilers, but !), and wanted to hear more about this wonderful alchemical mixture of mystery and SFFH. She agreed to lay out how it worked for … Continue reading Guest Post by Neve Maslakovic
Two YA Novels-in-Verse
The Poet X cover The Poet X is an award-winning YA novel in verse by Elizabeth Acevedo. It’s told by Xiomara, a young girl from a strict Catholic family making her way through all the feelings and fears that go along with growing up. “…she better not hear about me hanging out like a wet … Continue reading Two YA Novels-in-Verse
The Houses
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas was sold to me as gothic-horror, and that may be part of why I was disappointed. For me, it never got creepy enough or weird enough or really came to any sharp point that drew blood or emotion the way you'd expect in a haunted house story. Ines is running … Continue reading The Houses
Two Books of Collective Heroism
The last two books I read had something in common. A group of flawed people each making personal, hard choices to change their society - whether that's a whole galaxy or just where they live. Alone, none of them were successful. It required a community effort. In Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone, Viv is … Continue reading Two Books of Collective Heroism
Two Book Benders
There have been several attempts at the What-If notion about characters coming out of books or readers popping in. And while I have only read a few of them, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is now my gold standard. The trick is that Parry manages to excel on three levels simultaneously. Character, Plot, and … Continue reading Two Book Benders
The First Free Women by Matty Weingast
This translated collection proves to me that poetry is the universal language. I fully expected these poems to feel distant, to be dry and esoteric, or perhaps quirky with their Buddhist lens and historical distance, but instead I found myself in tears. The truths in this work struck me hard. Weingast managed to preserve the … Continue reading The First Free Women by Matty Weingast
Nesting Doll Doorway Books
You ever read a book and think, huh. That is so much like this other book, but also entirely different. What a magnificent world we live in where I can read both and compare them! The Starless Sea and The Ten Thousand Doors of January! The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern promises a book … Continue reading Nesting Doll Doorway Books
Round-Up of What’s What
I had trouble choosing one singular favorite book I read this year, but I wrote up a whole post about what I loved and recommend in case you need another excuse to fill your shelves with wonderful words! And, in my ongoing quest to be more intentional with my reading (and everything else, let's be … Continue reading Round-Up of What’s What
