Thank you to NetGalley and Levine Querido for the eARC!

I really enjoyed “When The Angels Left The Old County.—it was one of my faves of 2023–and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read Sacha Lamb’s sophomore novel. The magical elements are sparse in the beginning, which made me worry I would find it too dry to continue, but I stuck around for the relatively quick pacing. In some ways, I’m glad I did. This is an interesting queer take on dybbuks, and since Sacha Lamb’s debut, I’ve loved how they intertwine gender into different supernatural and religious concepts. (Although at times, this can lean more towards the allegorical side.) The marketing banks on the queer rep, though, which I think is slightly misleading as it’s handled in a more complex(and subtle?) way inside the context of the historical setting. And for those who are looking forward to the promised lesbianism, there’s not much of it. 

Although there was political tension, literary censorship and murder tied into the story’s plot, the writing style still maintained a cozy, fable feel. It complimented some of the fantastical elements well. I’m not a history nerd, but the 19th-century Russia setting felt immersive and seemed to be very researched. I also liked the sprinklings of Yiddish throughout. (I was alright with using Google, but I’m curious to see if there will be a glossary in the finished version of this book, like Lamb’s debut.)

The POV changes are slightly confusing. While the logic of them was explained towards the middle of the book, when it wasn’t just flashbacks anymore, it could be hard to keep up with who was who. The ending was also very abrupt, and had me wondering if I was missing a couple of details or pages in my digital copy. It’s a major reason why I lowered my rating, especially because I think it squashed some of Sorel’s potential as a character. But I will also have to read the finished version and see how it is edited.

I read this on audio bc it was narrated by the same woman who narrated “Each Of Us A Desert”(Frankie Corzo mention)! The only major drawback to the format was that her British accent was mediocre, and it sounded more like hoarseness at times lol. Which is a shame when more than half of the cast is British.

Perhaps the real horrors were the eugenics and colonialist practices we found along the way

I’ve had mixed feelings on the Blood Debts series. Since I finished reading the first book, I’ve gone back and edited my rating (specifically on StoryGraph) to be a 3.75, but I still come back to the series whenever I can. I could attribute a lot of that to the drama, ballsy decisions made by each character, and a murder count that seems to only increase(yeah, this was definitely written by a GOT fan), but after reading two books and deciding to read I want to read the third one, too, I’m realizing I like them more than those initial surface-level reasons.

(And to those who saw my Blood Debts review, and read that I said that it sounded like Zachary’s narrator had a different mic, they fixed the audio this time!)

On the topic of POVs, they seemed to be structured better this time. I still think we could’ve done without Zachary’s POV, since it’s never been a huge part of the story and not only would we have arrived to the same conclusion about his dad but it would’ve been impactful only seeing Jack later on. (

We’re not getting any more of Zach’s POV anyhow, though.😅

) But Valentina’s POV felt more necessary to her character instead of a reiteration of different plot points. She’s a messy, horrible person of course, but I liked seeing her reconcile with her mother, and the bits of her learning about her family history and heritage(and trying to connect with it). Damnit, why can’t she just try to be a normal teenager. She’s just HAS to manipulate an adult every Tuesday into giving her a one-up over Cris, huh.

Sofia was a character I wasn’t expecting to care about, but damn I kind of hope she has a couple POV chapters in the next book because she’s been wronged by both sides, and I don’t know how she’ll deal with that because she feels and processes anger a lot differently than Cris and Valentina do.

Coming back to anger, the way it was handled in this book was super interesting? The wording could be heavy-handed, but I liked the angle on Cris’s righteous anger and how peaceful resolution isn’t always an answer(or option), although for  marginalized people(especially women of color), it’s always the expected choice. I even think Clem struggling sometimes to understand Cris’s decisions because of that works, too.

I’m still not the biggest fan of the side romances and how they’re paced. I think it’s just an issue I have with the author’s writing. Cris had a fling with Remi and although her nerves about falling in love are completely understandable because of the love spell fiasco last book and the trauma she got, it was very repetitive about how “she didn’t want to be hurt again like with Oz”. But I could get behind Yves and Clem’s romance a bit more, now, even if I don’t think my feelings are ever going to change on their introduction and pacing in the first book. (That was probably because of the epilogue. Until then, I kept thinking Clem was being selfish about Yves.)

Another thing I didn’t like was some of the therapy language Clem and Cris would use to talk about themselves sometimes? Even though Clem sees a therapist regularly and narratively it makes sense, I still thought those parts were ways for the author to interject his own analysis of his characters into the narrative. (Which is something I could already gather! Terry J. Benton-Walker definitely knows his characters very well, something that I’ll always note. I don’t know if I ever included this in my Blood Debts review, but he consistently never writes his characters making decisions that are out of line for them as people. Are they terrible decisions? A lot of the time. But are they out of character? No.)

Last thoughts: 1) I knew there was some political intrigue in the first book, but Valentina was playing manipulation/political chess the whole book, and that was…a lot more detailed than I expected for a YA book. Maybe even out of place. I will partially excuse it, though, because Game Of Thrones is a comp title. 2) Starting to think there’s a pattern in these books of there being a climax of questionable quality, but a solid ending.

In a couple ways, though, I thought this was a solid sequel and built off of the cliffhanger at the end of Blood Debts. I’m curious and nervous to see how the story will be wrapped up.

pre-review:
purely for the amount of emotions I went through reading this, I think it deserves a 4 star rating from me. I am NOT going through that rollercoaster again unless someone bribes me with hundreds of dollars

I’m aware the gay YA coming-of-age genre has grown more common in present-day queer literature, especially coming out stories, but I still think this should be read! For the rep, yes(I liked the sprinklings of Aboriginal culture throughout, and the men’s group as a whole), but also because of how sweet it was. I was smiling by the end. Jackson and Tomas’s love story has the earnestness of two baby gays fumbling through their own self-discovery, and figuring out how to love each other.

And I loved the different scenes of Tomas working on his comic book graphic novel with Jackson! Seeing a character’s creative process in any kind of media is always so much fun, especially because of how these different parts shaped the two boys’ relationship. I will even forgive the continued use of “drawer”. (Also, art was a lot more important to this book than I thought it would be?? That was super cool.)

I’ll definitely check out Gary Lonesborough’s other works! I’d been super excited to read this even before I found out it had another title in the U.S.

Settling on 4.0 stars. I picked this out on a whim, and I’m glad I did, because it ended up being one of my strangest and most surprising reads this year! I wasn’t expecting to be as engrossed in it as I was. Overall, it’s a solid horror book, if a bit slow. Despite the slow buildup, the beginning wasn’t very boring. I liked the cast of characters in the town, and the anecdotes Ada would provide about them in her journal entries. There were also immersive entries on different festivals and the like, which was a neat way to add more depth to Lowry Bridge! The journal/diary format is convincing, minus the frequent dialogue. But it works in placing you directly in Ada’s thoughts, which is great for her arc of gradual corruption.

The ending is strange, for both better and worse. I was glad to see some of the absolutely wild scenes and buildup in the book finally pay off, but at times, it felt like the narrative flip-flopped from viewing Ada’s change as empowerment, or just madness. (My opinion: although I understand Ada’s joy in a sort of newfound freedom, and that *she* views her shift as empowerment, *I* still can’t 100% view it as empowering due to, y’know, killing someone and being unaffected by it.) 

And justice for my girl Agatha!! I felt for her by the end.

Only other criticisms I have are that I wished the other characters were as affected by the story as Ada was? Although they all had interesting introductions, minus two characters, they kind of dissolve into a mass disgusted by Ada. (Agatha’s partially an exception.)

This might change, but, I’m giving this an extra .5 because I thought this started off very strong: I liked the different facets of Gabriela being uncomfortable in their body/existence (both from a transracial adoptee, and a gender dysphoria perspective). Sometimes this was shown through poetry or a draft for one of Gabriela’s essay assignments, and I thought that was interesting. Also, I liked the nuance in Gabriela’s relationship with their mother. I think the mental illness discussions were sort of stiff and didn’t really show their actual age(read a lot more mature/informative than a middle schooler’s words), but I thought the plot point about Gabriela reconnecting to their roots (via Abbie’s abuela) and processing some of the cultural disconnect with their adoptive mom was mostly well done, if a bit short.

I have several other issues, though. First of all, the writing style. There was an uncanny, constant switching between super simplistic in order to be understandable to the target demographic, and sounding too adult to ever be believable? (And then there’s the pandering lines, like “who uses pencils anymore? So weird. I love it” when Gabriela first meets Héctor? Ok.) Because of that, I can’t imagine how or if this could actually reach the intended audience…?  For example, when Maya tells Abbie about her relative’s lesbian relationship, Abbie’s first reaction is(I am quoting the text): “I hope they're in love, treat each other equally in their relationship, and resist any form of discrimination in the toxic misogynistic society we live in!” Abbie’s supposed to be thirteen, by the way.

(Abbie as a character drove me up the wall, actually! She’s a very tropey, “most politically active in the group” character who is one of the people to introduce Gabriela to different queer terms. Frequently, I found her dialogue to be awkward and clunky.)

oh my god on the topic of the characters sounding too adult sometimes. how are these kids getting ubers…don’t they need to be eighteen…but anyhow. When Gabriela comes out to Maya as ace, and she doesn’t take it well, that was easily the funniest part of the entire book😭 “Now what? Where does that leave us?” “I don’t know, but my Uber’s going to be here in six minutes” PLAYED COMPLETELY SERIOUS DURING A SERIOUS MOMENT BETWEEN TWO MIDDLE-SCHOOLERS has me in tearssss

Basically every character has at least one terminally online moment in this book. Completely played straight. It’s painful. One of the teachers hears a poem by a kid about how he’s abused at home by his dad and absorbed some of his behaviors, and his first comment is that his “use of the word ‘stupid’ is ableist” idc that afterwards he sort of excuses it in some convoluted way, HOW is that something ANYONE would say. EVER. 

Not much else to say except for the “terminally online” thing definitely applies to Gabriela’s gender arc, too? There aren’t many earnest conversations. Héctor calling that one meetup/conversation thing with Gabriela “Queer 101” doesn’t just feel like a cute name, it basically describes the execution of all the queer topics in this book. Props to the reviewer who said their arc felt “more like window-shopping than personal introspection”, because that describes it pretty well.

No clue if I’d read another book by this author. Maybe yes, if their next novel goes through a couple more editors. But hey, I started this book in a funk, and after passing the beginning, got some enjoyment out of often laughing at some of the lines. So I’m…grateful? Idk.

Got this and a Ms Marvel comic at a comic shop’s little setup in Fan Expo! (They were having a sale.) Some parts of this were uncomfortably relatable as a nonbinary person, ha. I liked the style of storytelling, Maia growing up with zines is pretty evident in eir writing, and even in some of the visuals! And this managed to stay both informative and personal. 

I understand people giving this a higher rating due to how much the narrative bounces around, maybe it’s due to every life story being connected by gender but I didn’t mind it as much? Or perhaps my taste in memoirs is changing! Who knows.

Also, I appreciated how Maia wrote about how eir gender intersected with eir sexuality. (Even when e found out e was ace!) again…uncomfortably relatable for all my transmascs out there with terrible dysphoria. Solidarity🤝

While it’s unfortunate that this book is being challenged so frequently, I’m not surprised :(…obviously this whole book is a memoir about queerness, but there’s also a lot of on-page and illustrated discussions about sexuality. (Which some puritans are in a tizzy about.) Honestly though, I think this should be mandatory reading. Particularly for teens tbh! It can be a useful introduction to queer terminology and possibly help someone put a name to any gender-related angst or disconnect they have.

Like any other anthology, there were some stories I loved and others I thought were mediocre. But regardless, I liked the range of genres and concepts done within the vague prompt of “queer growth, but relate it to plants in some way to make it kind of literal”. Even with the stories I didn’t enjoy as much, there was a lot of heart put into them. (Also, there was a lot of queer joy! Which made this a perfect Pride Month read.)

Some favorites of mine were “The Aloe’s Bargain”(this one made me tear up!), “The Thing About Jack O’Lanterns”, “The Mandrake Loves The Olive”, “Seedlings”(heart wrenching magical realism my beloved), “A Lumberjack’s Guide To Dryad Spotting”, “Feeding Coals”, and “How To Make A Spell Jar”.