The opening of this novel is excellent, probably the best in the Discworld series up to this point. The rest of the book is fine. I don't care for Rincewind, and this is another Rincewind-centric book. I'm glad there will be a break from him after this in my readthrough for a little bit. Overall, while aspects of the writing are tighter, this installment is on the same level as Mort for me. 

I'm pretty sure Conina only appears in this book (though I could be wrong as there are several Discworld novels I haven't ever read), but I think she should be gay. I'm glad there wasn't a neat heterosexual ending for her, just an ambiguous one, cause otherwise I would have been very annoyed.

This would be a better intro to the wizards than The Color of Magic, but I'm not sure I would recommend it to many people as an intro to the whole series.

I've seen people recommending Metal from Heaven as a novel for fans of the Locked Tomb series for a while, and I definitely get the comparison. This book has a lot in common with both Gideon the Ninth in terms of main character and Harrow the Ninth in terms of form. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near as successful as either novel. In fact, I really struggled to get through this one despite some promising and even delightful elements.

First, the good.

I have frequently complained that many fantasy (and some sci-fi) writers can't be bothered to think through how queerness would operate in their world. Either the whole world is homophobic or the whole world is queernormative but without any interrogation of what that would mean for gender roles, inheritances, etc. August Clarke is a delightful exception to this rule. They have created a world that, in addition to different cultures and religions and magical abilities, also contains varied attitudes toward queerness including different terminology and different ways that specifically lesbians operate within different cultural contexts. Would consider reading more books set in this world simply for that reason.

I also really liked the themes that Clarke was exploring here. This is a novel about capitalism and exploitation and labor rights. It's also a novel about a lesbian going to every length possible to avenge people from their past. I've very glad that these elements were present.

Unfortunately, I struggled with pretty much everything else about this book. It's written in a way that was probably meant to be kind of experimental and surrealist but just ended up being confusing most of the time. I regularly had no idea how we got from one scene to the next. Characters also formed relationships with each other instantly and inorganically, and I didn't really care about any of the interpersonal dynamics because none of them were developed. There were some individual scenes that were great, like a very charged sex scene near the middle, but even that was undercut by the total lack of development of that dynamic. This is a long book, but maybe it could have been a duology considering how much is underdeveloped and also how much happens in the last 15% of it.

I did love the climax, but the ending didn't quite work for me. I see what the author was going for. It just wasn't successful for me as a reader.

Also, this isn't an issue with the text itself, but I listened to the audiobook, and the sheer number of words pronounced incorrectly almost made me DNF about ten times. It was the auditory equivalent of having a noticeable typo every 2-3 pages. I don't blame either the author or the narrator for this, but I wish that there had been some sort of editor or director or SOMEONE noticing all of the mispronunciations before this was released. August Clarke needed a better developmental editor for the content of the book, and the audiobook needed better oversight to make sure it was accurately reflecting the words that Clarke had written. I hope they get more publisher support for the next one, because while some aspects of this book were simply not to my taste, there were others that were dripping with potential and just needed some polishing to be a much richer, more enjoyable read.

A little rough around the edges, and I could have done with fewer Taylor Swift references, but I really liked this book. The liberal arts college atmosphere was spot-on and nostalgic for me, a person who graduated from their liberal arts college four years ago. I really enjoyed Sophie and Jo and their dynamic. Ann Zhao did a great job of creating two characters who are polar opposites in so many ways and exactly the same in others. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between how both characters made, kept, and related to their friends. I loved that this was a novel about friendship and queerplatonic love that was structured the same way as a romance novel, right down to the third-act breakup. And while the third-act conflict was ridiculous, the characters acknowledged it as such, and the resolution felt realistic and satisfying. I would absolutely recommend this book to lots of people, and I think that it's a valuable addition to the aspec literary canon.

This is one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. It was also brilliant. Sabaa Tahir’s dedication to realism in the writing combined with the careful doling out of information creates a narrative so immersive and vibrant that by the end, I felt like I knew these characters completely. I loved all three POV characters, through all their flaws and mistakes, and I am so glad that there was some hope amidst all the despair. I related to both contemporary MCs but especially to Salahudin in so many ways, and I am so glad that their story got told (there I go acting like they’re real people). I’ve never read a YA novel quite like this one.

Absolutely the ultimate horse girl book. Loved the subversion of tropes in this one. Also, yay intersex MC! Not necessarily the strongest in the series but would be a good starting point if you don't want to start at book one with the school storyline. 

Not my favorite of the school books in this series, but the exploration of the other school was super compelling, and I was rooting for Cora and the other characters the whole way through. I'll be interested to see if we revisit any more narrative threads set up in this book in a later one. I assume yes.

Soft DNF. I like the characters and the premise but I'm not super engaged so far. Might try again some other time.

This book absolutely exists as a response to Harry Potter in a “fuck you JKR” sort of way, and I mean this very much as a compliment. It’s a British fantasy novel set in a modern world with a hidden magical society. There are a few other similarities in the worldbuilding as well (government, history, etc.), though Dawson has evidently thought about most aspects of her magical world much more than Rowling ever has. 

Her Mejesty’s Royal Coven, however, is a story that subverts and plays with these concepts in ways that are a direct result of common critiques of both Rowling and her novels. The characters and the text interrogate magic supremacy, magic gender essentialism, and real-world white supremacy and transphobia as central parts of the story. 

I love that the main characters here are in their thirties and that the teens are firmly secondary characters. I LOVED what Dawson did with prophecies. I was compelled by all of the plotlines (though I’m definitely hoping for more Leonie in the sequels), and the ending absolutely made me lose my mind.

It was rough around the edges in some places, and the beginning was definitely VERY slow, but I would absolutely recommend this modern adult pro-trans witch novel and look forward to continuing the series.

Weirdly slow for such a short book. Luckily the relationship dynamics are much better than in the other book set in this world, but the book as a whole is also a lot less fun and readable. The main character has a decent arc. The Rapunzel stuff is integrated creatively and fairly subtly, which is what I would expect from Gail Carson Levine. The oppression plotline is heavy handed but fine. Overall, not Levine's best, but it still had good moments, especially near the end.