Reviewed as part of #IndieInkAwards judging. The score on this review does not reflect the score I provided for the awards judging, but is a reflection of the rating of this novel for my own personal read. Slow pace is always hard for me, and made this one pretty challenging to get through. I also wanted more queerness centered in this novel, but the queerness was not part of the primary conflict of the protagonist, nor was the protagonist a queer character. Could be a great fit for folks who enjoy slow paced novels, romance, and are maybe starting to dip their toes into LGBTQNIA2S+ SFF/aren't expecting that to be central to the novel or the protagonist's conflict. This novel is part of a series, so it's possible things shift a bit in later novels. 

Pace picks up in the second half, but slower paced for this Butler classic. 

Definitely still sorting this one out. First book I’ve finished/had any desire to read, let alone finish since the events of the last few months.

Medium-to-slow paced. Wild as hell. 

Confused as hell, but also intrigued as hell. Also curious as hell what Alecto will bring us. 

I've been holding off on writing up my review of Lone Women due to the requests of writers, editors, and other staff at Random House and their ongoing strike.

At this time, I'm going to go ahead and write my review here so that hopefully in the future, I'll be able to add to NetGalley once an agreement can be reached by the union and the corporation.

First and foremost, shoutout to the One World team for recommending I pick up Lone Women due to my review of a novel by another writer, as well as to the NetGalley team for supporting readers, reviewers, and authors. This novel, set during the early 20th century during the U.S. historical era of Westward Expansionism, has fabulous pacing that matches the western/horror/time period style incredibly well. Right around the halfway mark, readers get a big reveal, which allows for really nice ramping up of the story itself. Our protagonist is a Black femme homesteader during a historical period in the United States that was not kind to unmarried Black femmes. 

There's a really gothic feel to this novel, and it's a bit of a combination of something like a monster noir story set during this period alongside a more traditional Western style novel. This combination isn't one I would have thought would work for me, but my experience is that this combination felt really clean and fresh. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the LGBTQNIA2S+ representation in the novel as well and that these characters don't play solely a secondary part in the novel, but become the main focus for large portions of the story. 

I would recommend this novel to folks who enjoy horror, Westerns, and are willing to take a risk on a combination of the two. Due to the style/setting/time period in question, the pacing is slower, but anyone who enjoys a good Western will be familiar with this! 

CW: child abduction, transphobia, homophobia, monsters, classism, racism (albeit to differing levels among these). 

First and foremost, special thanks to Random House's Kathleen Quinlan for pre-approving me for an eARC of this novel through NetGalley and knowing this was the right kind of novel for me. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Play the Fool. A perfect read for spooky season brought this novel to the top of my TBR, and has had me recommending it once released to a number of folks. Our protagonist, Katie, is a fiesty 20's something who is down on her luck (or maybe she's just exhausted by trying to live up to her family's expectations of her). When her mysterious older friend disappears and seems to have been murdered, Katie uses her skills for reading people and interpreting the tarot to try to discover what happened to her friend.

Soon Katie finds herself enmeshed in the possible murder investigation that's... not a murder investigation (the body disappeared?!), and seems to keep popping up at the wrong time, and the is quickly befriended by the detective who is new in town with his own difficult past.

Darkly and riotously funny, with prose that's precise and flowing, I highly recommend Play the Fool for fans of novels with femme protagonists, dark humor, murder mysteries, and twists and turns, but don't want to ruin the fun of unraveling the mystery within for future readers! 

First and foremost, thanks to author J.C.M. Berne for providing me with a free electronic copy of Wistful Ascending in exchange for an honest review.

A great match for readers who enjoy witty SF, with a little romance, good guy with a not-so-pretty-past trope, lots of action, some found-family vibes, and not emotionally heavy SF. There are great little references to other fantasy/SF in media that readers should enjoy as well.

Our protagonist is a super-human with Superman-esque powers, a Hybrid, born of a human and non-human parent who was born on Earth and has an ugly former life as a soldier. He's now living in the outer rings of the solar system, and the novel takes the reader through the exchanges with and arrival of a number of different actors and new species on the station where our protagonist now works towing spacecraft to/away from the sentient AI station.

This story moves right along, but includes a number of quotidian details, so I wouldn't quite call it fast paced. Given the story doesn't feel overly emotionally heavy, this was a nice break from some other SF I read that can tend to have heavier themes that require deeper emotional investment on the part of the reader. I'm hoping many readers find themselves enjoying the witty retorts, action-packed scenes, and balance of different themes and tropes in Wistful Ascending - can't wait to see what Ronan, Tamaralinth, the kaiju of the nearby planet who don't like anger, our sentient AI, and others get up to as the series progresses. 

I will say that a couple of scenes/transitions between them felt a bit disjointed for me as well, but I think that was the author's style/the way Berne chose to move the story along. Just a bit different, and not my personal preference.