Unfortunately, the standouts were basically at the beginning. Even though one of my favorites was in the second floor(?) section, I still think that the anthology overall lost its momentum after the stair section. The first and second floor sections had a lot of stories that were super mediocre if not terrible. (There was a lot of predictability. Some of it fun, most of it not.) However, this was still a mostly enjoyable collection, and I can see it getting a couple readers into horror.

My personal favorites were “Good Morning, Georgia”(4.5⭐️), “Cradle And All”(5⭐️), and “The Phantom’s Waltz”(4⭐️). “Good Morning Georgia” was super predictable but I still enjoyed the story itself, it was sweet—the same can mostly be said about “The Phantom’s Waltz”(the ending was a slight subversion). I’m not that familiar with Filipino folklore and monsters, but “Cradle And All” was a creative and emotional use of the tiyanak.

Honorable mentions: “The Grey Library”(3.75⭐️), for having the ending twist and the overall writing style of a Goosebumps novel; “After Midnight”(probably 3.75⭐️?) for having a gripping narrative, but the modern references were a little grating; and “What Lies In Silence”(rating unsure, lol) for being a Justine Pucella Winans story about grief… if you know anything about my Bianca Torre lore this is a historical moment for me. (Also, it was a great palette cleanser after the stories in my “Dishonorable Mentions” section⬇️)

Dishonorable Mentions: “Let’s Play A Game” (2.5⭐️) and “Smartmonster”(2⭐️) for being stories I hated so much they were literally pissing me off. (“Let’s Play A Game” was anticlimactic and barely horror, “Smartmonster” was a YA dystopia snuck into this collection and I actively detested my reading experience.) I read a lot of this anthology in a night, though, so I was tired enough that I couldn’t read on and I had to go to sleep with that simmering☠️

The organization of the stories was super creative, though, and I loved the art included throughout. I think I should’ve read this during the Halloween season! It would have been more fun. 

A solid, but flawed, start to a series. Kalynn Bayron is another hit or miss author with me, but I was curious to see how one of her middle grades was, and I’m glad I checked it out! I’ll get this out of the way first: I think Bayron writes kids much better than teens. A lot of the friend group interactions felt authentic, and honestly, those were my favorite parts of the book. Their nerdiness? Their trust of each other? Ugh, I love Boog, Cedrick, Jules and Aaron. (Oh, and a fem-presenting nonbinary character is part of the main cast, too!! Hi Jules! I want to get overalls so I can imitate your outfits.)

And I’m so surprised by how recent middle grades address the stress put on young protagonists!! The grief felt by Boog and the others when Aaron went missing hit so hard. Definitely nailed the “surrealness” of a young mind dealing with an incident like that.

I also liked that there was a bunch of information given on not just vampires, but the societal attitudes around them. That’s so interesting to me! I do kinda wish that they addressed more of the implications of all of our real-life pop culture vampire icons also existing in this universe, but that’s just me speaking as an older reader (and thinking about the ethics/questions about creating and romanticizing fictional vampire lore in a universe with actual vampires). I don’t really expect that to be answered LOL

This also had a couple more creepy elements than I expected from a middle grade horror! (I enjoyed that.) Honestly the only thing Bayron tones down in her writing is the number of deaths (and amount of blood/gore). Which isn’t much, aside from the juvenile language.

However, I intensely disliked the pacing, and it’s what made me lower my rating from a full 4 stars. The book seems to end when the action starts, and a lot of the story is Boog just trying to figure out what’s going on with her friends. And, of course, a lot of lying done by parents and adults along the way. (There wasn’t even a conversation around what was or wasn’t age-appropriate knowledge and involvement, and that was so frustrating!! Even moreso, after seeing the reviews for books 2 and 3, and figuring out that’s never going to happen. I don’t think I’m used to that after reading Witchlings.😕) I think the only perk of the kind-of slow pacing is that the mystery surrounding Aaron and the entire friend group’s close-knit dynamic (but also the sheer number of secrets they keep) is actually pretty Stranger Things s1-reminiscent, just without the 80’s nostalgia. I can see why that show is a comp title.

I’m still gonna be continuing this series, though. I had a lot of fun. I might have a bet on

who is the vampire that turned Aaron.

Super charming graphic novel, glad I decided to read it! I’d been anticipating it for a while, since I saw a post made by the authors about it.

I was sucked in from the beginning, with some magically surreal visuals and storytelling that feel akin to something like “The Little Prince”, and a setting that, while it was futuristic, managed to still feel grounded in how it handled different issues such as queerphobia and the struggle to fit in. (In many different ways! There was Indu’s queerness, yes, but him also being a cultural outsider in the Indonesian setting, and being sorta anxious to branch out and meet new people.) I especially loved how Indu gradually bonding with his siblings and classmates was handled. His nerves felt accurate for a kid at that age, I didn’t think for a second his reactions felt out of place.

The bilingual representation was *chef’s kiss*. It’s rare for me to see passive fluency discussed—I’ve seen bits of it throughout other stories centering immigrants, but the term hasn’t ever been used before in something I’ve read! Got to learn a bit from that, hooray. I loved how Indonesian language was weaved into the story, too. I don’t speak it, so I had to go off of context clues, but I actually appreciate the lack of translation. I think it shows Indonesian readers (especially LGBTQ+ ones!) that this is something for them.

In general, though, the Indonesian rep was fantastic. It is so rare for me to see queer stories from within that culture (just because of normalized queerphobia, the Indonesian folks I’ve known that aren’t cishet are closeted irl for that reason), and I loved that even in a sci-fi fantasy like this, there was still spotlight on the pre-existing terminology. (I’d heard the term waria before, but not priawan!) Their inclusion was so normalized, but still left room for characters that weren’t using labels or still figuring themselves out. To have that kind of positive representation was so lovely. 

The art was also stunning!! Ugh I loved every page. Even the panels where there were less things going on visually. 

Tbh I loved the family and platonic dynamics more than the few romantic relationships in the story, they just had less time to develop or kinda exist on-page, but I still found the characters charming.

Overall, pretty great! My only other critiques are that the ending was pretty rushed, and some of the dialogue didn’t feel very natural.  

Like all good romance stories—particularly romcoms—this was adorable and emotional in nearly equal measure. Honestly, I found myself sad to be finishing this! It is by all means a tropey romance, but the author’s evident passion, and the wholesomeness of Lan and Vivi’s relationship kept me recommending this to my friends literally as I was reading it. (Can we appreciate the Mid-Autumn Festival kiss trope? I’m slowly starting to realize that’s one of my favorites!) The food descriptions were absolutely mouthwatering! I also loved the bits of historical context included on the different dishes throughout(even touching on some of their ties to imperialism and colonialism), and that Trinity Nguyen included multiple Vietnamese ethnic groups in the plot. 

Vivi’s plot around reconnecting with her culture was handled interestingly. We got to see her grow to love Saigon because of Lan, have a lot of fun gathering material for Lan’s journalism (unironically love the excuse to travel around the city and have great food… yum), and originally focus on bonding with Lan over the places and parts she found joy in. But we also got to see Vivi grow to reconcile with her family’s history and trauma, while still finding pride and resilience from that. Although, the wording of these different emotions and themes is kind of simplistic, as to be expected from a younger YA novel that’s still fairly light. (And some of the explanations around Vietnamese language and culture(s) make the overall book feel educational, but in a way intended for those not as familiar with it. So either non-Vietnamese readers or those still reconnecting, like Vivi..? I’m in that former group, so I’m not sure how much I can complain, but I’m kinda used to YA stories that expect the readers to be within the cultures they’re writing about and therefore don’t explain as much. That was jarring for me.)

I won’t lie though, Vivi’s lies to her mom got increasingly unbelievable and embarrassing, I had to skim over those parts☠️

Admittedly, the romance itself was a little rushed—to be expected, when the story takes place only around the course of a week or two—but I could still understand how Lan and Vivi were able to connect. I enjoyed the way they were able to still be compassionate towards each other, even if their experiences were vastly different (particularly around family issues and grief). They were also an adorable pairing!! I don’t have any put-together reviewer words for that.

Holy shit though, the last thing I expected from this novel was a poignant depiction of grief, and being a teen dealing with the responsibility you force upon yourself because of that. Not only did I appreciate Lan’s grief still being an ebbing and flowing thing years after her father’s death happened, but ugh. The conversation she had with her mom at the end, and Lan finally going through her father’s books, made me actually cry. Like damn. 

Banger of a debut, I’m very excited to see what Trinity Nguyen writes next :)

MANY THOUGHTS. But to start:
1) I am continually amazed by how this series can examine and put its young characters through the different, complex emotions I would expect them to, but still stick to a simplified/distinctly juvenile style.
2) SYBELL I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN😭🫶they were AWESOME in the last act but ugh. What happened to them made me SEETHE! but fiinneee we need another major conflict for the fourth book
3) I was iffy on the sheer amount of buildup, but it paid off with *that* moment (I mean, Valley’s on the cover. That’s already a spoiler). However, the sheer amount of plot points that couldn’t be wrapped up or addressed until then made the pacing a mess. Doesn’t help that each chapter seems to end on an action or a cliffhanger. 
4) So many plot points happened in this book. A good number of them are wrapped up by the end but, dear god. 

I will put up the rest of my thoughts later. I will say that although this is a very flawed continuation, I adored the continuations of all the main characters (Seven was always a favorite and that still remains the case), and this brought back some of the magic I was missing in “Golden Frog Games”.

Hm… I was disappointed by this novel after anticipating it the moment I finished “A Warning About Swans”, but I enjoyed it slightly more than I thought I would based on the first half. I tried suspending my disbelief for the in-verse aspect, since I’m used to reading YA in the genre and know that of course some of the dialogue is going to be more flowery or obvious to get the story across, but I just couldn’t get invested in the characters. The writing tries to be as lush for the characters as it is for the darkly magical, neon-colored underworld, but instead it feels like it is too focused on aesthetics and seeming profound to have any kind of substance.

In a Eurydices and Orpheus retelling, one of the biggest issues that you can have is failing to create a convincing (or memorable) romance. Unfortunately, that was the case in “Death’s Country”, and it was what plummeted my rating the moment I reached the initial beach meet-cute. Incorporating the mermaid and prince motif/metaphor in their dialogue was also a strange creative choice, this was when the three of them were still in a contemporary setting, so it just felt cringy. (None of the actions and dialogue felt realistic either, lmfao?? I had to shut my book for a moment.) And while I appreciate that Liora’s arc was meant to critique the MPDG undertones of her character, she spent so much time being a plot device that there wasn’t enough depth to counteract that.

(Also. What is it with my 3 star YA reads overusing lyrics from “Space Oddity” by David Bowie??) 

I will say, though, that I liked the Underworld itself (in all its strangely Wonderland-esque glory), the character of Virgil (although he didn’t have a lot of on-page time), the very beginning (I was SO prepared for this to give me Anna-Marie McLemore vibes!! Ugh!), and the final twist of what Andres’s offering to Death was. 

I’m used to Romero having on-the-nose writing, but this didn’t have the same emotional pull and depth, in my opinion. Perhaps this comes from there being so much subject matter that isn’t given a lot of time to be handled. 

I haven’t read “Vampires Never Grow Old” so I have no authority to review or criticize that anthology, but I did read “Mermaids Never Drown”, and can say that I thought this one was so much better?!?! That one was fun, yes, but I thought the stories in “Faeries Never Lie” stuck with me more, on both a writing and emotional standpoint. Though, more of my favorites were from the authors I wasn’t as familiar with. (Ryan La Sala’s story was underwhelming, and I was really looking forward to it. Conflicted on what to feel about Rory Power’s story because I didn’t dig the flowery writing, but I loved the ending and how messed up it was.) 

Perhaps it’s also because there’s a bit more substance to connect all the stories together. Are they in an interconnected universe? Absolutely not. (Some of these stories are even from existing books by the authors they’re written by. See: “Blue Amber” and “The Honest Folk”.) However, they all captured the allure, mystery, and even threat of faeries, even if the degrees of each thing varied based on the author. A couple of these were willing to go the horror route, actually, and while those didn’t end up on my favorites list, they were still enjoyable. (See: “Fool” and “Dear Diary”.) 

I’ll admit, though, there were some stories I just thought were mediocre or rushed. A couple of these ideas seem like they’d work better in a longer form, like the magic school we see a glimpse of in “The New Girl At Autumn Prep”. (I also liked the idea of showing colonialism through the bits of history on the Courts, and white-centric beauty standards through the glamours! I just disliked how because of the length, the exposition was plentiful and rushed. Gah.) (…reading about an Indigenous-coded character going to a magic school to exceed in a space meant for her colonizers really makes me want to move “To Shape A Dragon’s Breath” up my TBR.) The only other story I can think of feeling rushed like that was “Revelry”, everything happened at a breakneck pace and the cliffhanger was frustrating.

Enough rambling! I’ll list my favorites: “Rotten”(5⭐️), “Blue Amber”(4.5⭐️), “The Honest Folk”(5⭐️), “Birch Kiss”(4.5⭐️), and “La Tierra Del Olvido”(4.25⭐️). “Rotten” was surprisingly unpredictable, with a snarky and intelligent protagonist that still found a way to meet her downfall, and I liked the Southern setting. “Blue Amber” was a stellar continuation of a universe I never thought I’d want to read from again, and captured some of the magic and poetry I’ve adored Anna-Marie McLemore’s books for. “The Honest Folk” was gripping from start to end, providing a memorable story that people who hadn’t read Folk Of The Air can still enjoy, and giving nods to the lore that longtime fans will love. “Birch Kiss” was a beautiful exploration of love, grief and gender—even the Prince is just a woman who uses that title!! The gender-fuckery is everywhere!—although, I do think that East’s dysphoric yearning about West could get toxic at times. 

If you’re limiting yourself to only checking out one of the Untold Legends anthologies, I’d recommend this one! It was great.

I’ll admit, I thought based on the summary that this would be too dark of a middle grade for readers within the target demographic. And while I still think that whoever does read it will have to have some level of maturity(probably within the 10-12 group), there was enough of a hopeful tone to keep this from feeling unpleasant to read. This was an emotional look at loss and community, with the kids acting age-appropriate. (Especially with most of them grappling with being forced to grow up too fast.)

Also, this is the second queer Appalachian book I’ve read that has a central dog character that survives to the end! Hello, Corncob. (Malnourished baby ☹️)

The main characters—Rose and Millie—sometimes made me want to pull my hair out just because of how hostile they were towards each other at the beginning, but their interpretation’s of each other’s actions and coping mechanisms were completely understandable. They knew they were all the other had, yes, but they hated their roles of assumed responsibility and that they had no one else.  It made their thoughts and psychology really interesting to read??? I feel like two siblings, realistically, would find it difficult to be around each other in an apocalyptic setting. (Also, I saw some of myself in Millie.)

Are some of the story beats predictable? Absolutely. But the twists were always so much fun, they were so juicy and added a lot to the characters. It’s one of the parts that made me stay up to finish this.

One of the things that made this story stand out to me, though, was that indigenous narratives are incorporated into an apocalypse scenario. Millie might not be as connected to her Seminole heritage as Rose thought she was, but she isn’t disconnected from her experience as an Indigenous kid. There were glimpses of how she viewed different entities (or people?) like The Hive slightly differently because she saw parallels to her ancestors’ history, but the bigger part of that was the overall discussion on colonialism and climate change being intrinsically tied. I think both of those things felt like they were talked about in a way the younger readers could start to grasp, even if they wouldn’t know all of the complexities yet.

On the topic of the kids acting like kids, the scene of Rose accidentally coming out to Olly was hilarious. Very much had the vibes of a middle school recess comeback.

However, I wanted some more substance from the Lost Boys’ group dynamic. There wasn’t as much time for the kids to forge their own bonds with Rose and Millie, so they felt more like a collective than a found family where I could be attached to all the members. Ben, however!!! I loved how his struggle as a caretaker was handled and how that so clearly paralleled Millie. He was such a strong character and his journal entries brought me to tears.

And this is a minor thing, but at the beginning, when the world was still being introduced, the writing somewhat covertly used Rose’s interest in reading as a way to describe it. Books themselves, too, are a motif throughout—usually, to mark privilege and access to resources—and that was such a creative method of worldbuilding???

This might become a favorite of mine. “The Flicker” had the character beats I adore in apocalypse narratives, but with a quarter of the on-page deaths (key words: “on-page”), and almost half of the usual stress. I’m curious to know what younger readers actually within the demographic think, though! (Maybe I’ll find out from a parent’s Bookstagram or if I get the chance to go to an author event, who knows.)

*************
pre-review:
Was this a particularly unique post-apocalyptic universe?? By no means. Was I still invested the whole time? Oh absolutely.

RTC

gay baby eldritch horror you have to stop. your delicate balance between being horrifying and wholesome is too different. your swag too off-putting. your yaoi too toxic. they’ll kill you