Moments that felt repetitive (tho I think this was a literary device to show us how frustrating her day to day was or repetitive at times, etc), but for a debut this is VERY good and I love the idea as well of revisiting 15th century pre colonial African kingdoms and cultures. 

Reminded me a lot of what I’ve learned of W African kingdoms 

Just wasn’t compelling for me as a reader/felt like a chore to pick back up. 

Really solid read, and the best one I've read by Hendrix in a minute. Fully developed characters, believable dialogue, good intrigue into the mysterious portions of the novel. 

When a young 15 year old woman gets pregnant, she ends up being taken by her begrudging father to a "home" for unwed mothers, spending her summer in said sweltering home surrounded by other young pregnant women until it's time for her to give birth. Along the way, she, and her fellow young women are dismissed, ignored, and mistreated by the adults surrounding them. They're called names, judged, and assumptions are made about them. Two years before the passage of Roe, which codified uterus bearers right to make their own choices about their bodies in the United States, this young woman and some of her fellows decide to take certain matters into their own hands, and what ensues is a horror in ways different from others of Grady's novels. 

Note: I really appreciated Grady's note about being inspired by women in his own family and their stories of being taken to homes in their own adolescences. We love to see a man writing in support of women and femmes during an era where they didn't have much of a voice, particularly about their own bodies. The amount of empathy readers will gain not only for our young women, but even for some of the adult women surrounding them is a feat not many authors can pull off, regardless of their gender identity, another reason to love Hendrix. 

Sophomore novels are notoriously hard and this one is quite good, and very compelling. 

More notes with more brain power since it’s 2am and I couldn’t sleep without finishing this one. 

Middle of the line read for me. While I enjoyed the pacing and felt like this was a quick page turner, I didn't feel like the plot lines really resolved themselves/the sci fi space horror element really did enough for me. 

For example, the extraterrestrial sentience just... didn't matter in the end? There's no resolution for our protagonist with her family really? The weird moments of love interest don't turn into anything, even a major plot point?

This one was just not as good as the first novel, but I know the sophomore novel can be really challenging, and have a lot of respect for S.A. Barnes and the craft! 

Wrapping up this duology, we are back with Inez and company in Cairo and Alexandria, working towards bringing justice to the events of the first novel. While not quite as ambitious as the first novel, Ibanez wraps things up nicely with some solid twists and turns, betrayals, surprises, and familiar faces back in the fold (some in unexpected ways). 

The last human on earth being raised by robots. Victor (Vic) Lawson is the son of Giovanni (Gio) Lawson, designation inventor. When Vic takes two robots he fixed up (Rambo and Nurse Ratched) to the Scrap Yards, one day they find a power source, and with it a decommissioned robot of the former HARP designation, who becomes Hap (Hysterically Angry Puppet). 

What ensues is a riveting novel featuring an ace and neurospicy human character (queer, maybe autistic?) as our protagonist. I'm not sure how this is the first TJ Klune novel I've read, but I'm certain it won't be the last. Vic has to make big decisions: for himself, for his chosen few, for humanity (it's past, present, and future), as well as for all robot-kind. 

There's so much here, I'll just have to encourage folks to read it for themselves and reflect on their own humanity and journeys through the pages. 

First full read for quarter finals of SPSFC4. Whiskey and Warfare follows a primary protagonist and a band of her friends, all former mercenaries, from deep grief at the loss of the protagonist’s life partner to rescuing refugees on another planetary system, even though it’s been 20 years since they were mercenaries or privateers together. 

The depictions of grief were quite good, as well as mental health; dialogue was very solid, flowed well. 

While not the most exciting SF I’ve ever read, I loved the dynamics between the primary characters and their lovely friendship. Their support of Marin through her grief, fear of being back in the black, and more, are page turn worthy, and definitely worth a shot for adult audiences. 

This is truly a really solid read. I love the reflections on the way we treat others from the lens of a fantasy world, as well as the introduction of programming language as a form of writing magic (I see the borrows from Python especially!!). 

Scions is a privileged young woman trying to make a name for herself in a deeply misogynist magical culture, and the things she will learn about the city’s founding, and how it intersects in devastating ways with other cultures (lower caste folks in the city) is devastating. 

Horrifying, page turning, and hopeful, I definitely recommend and look forward to reading more by ML Wang.