curlygeek04's reviews
355 reviews

 

The Vengeance is a fun escapist read, combining historical France, female pirates, LGBTQ romance, and vampires.  Newman is a writer of fantasy and science fiction and also an audiobook narrator. I loved her Planetfall series and will pretty much read anything she writes, so I was happy to get an ARC of this book.

Morgane is a young woman who has grown up on the pirate ship Vengeance, captained by her mother. Unfortunately, when the pirates attack a ship that appears helpless, Morgane’s mother is assassinated and Morgane learns that her biological mother and father have been trying to find her. Morgane sets off to find both of them, reasoning that if they are actually her mother and father, she needs to know their story — and if they are not, they’re responsible for the captain’s death and she needs to kill them. Morgane, however, knows nothing of the world outside of her ship, especially the high society world she’s thrown into. On land she’s attacked at every turn and has no idea how to make her way in French society without stabbing everyone she meets.

You can probably tell, there’s a lot of snarky dialogue and a lot of action that make this a fun read – though it won’t give you much to think about. I liked Morgane a lot, though I see from other reviews that many readers did not. I liked her toughness and independence, and I also liked the way she discovers that she’s not nearly as tough, independent, and smart, as her life on the pirate ship led her to believe. In fact, she’s been extremely isolated and always taken care of. I liked that she has to work through the morality of her life as a pirate and decide what kind of person she wants to be.

There are a few execution issues that make this a not-perfect read. It’s described as being in the “world of Dumas” but I’m not sure why, other than that it takes place in France in an alternate past.  It also sounds like it’s part of a series, but it seems maybe the author or publisher are undecided on that, as there was no indication of another book coming. The book would have benefitted from a longer ending with more development of the relationships between Morgane, her father, and her mother. The vampire storyline is not given a lot of time in the book. The resolution is a good one but it felt rushed.

The Vengeance is a fun read, and mixes a number of genres and settings. It’s a little bit of a lot of things – pirates, road trip, historical fantasy, vampires, and romance. Some will be frustrated by this – if what you really want is a pirate novel or a vampire novel, this won’t be for you. But if that sounds good to you, I recommend giving it a try.

Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Solaris Books. This book publishes May 6, 2025. 

 

I loved this book of short stories that are a blend of magical realism, fairy tale retellings, history, love, grief, and horror. This book is hard to describe but is similar to Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell. It’s a little bit of everything but personal and family relationships are at the heart of each story. The book cover describes it as “historical fiction, horror, and fantasy tangle together in a queer garden of love,
grief, and longing.” I found it haunting but also relatable, and the writing beautiful.

My favorite was the title story, in which a son dies in France at the end of World War II, and his mother boards a government-sponsored ship to see where he was buried. Along the way she wrestles with her complicated feelings for her son, who she failed to accept when he was alive.

Another favorite, which felt very real right now, is about a scientist who designs a highly advanced AI to speak just like a human. The AI isn’t meant to adopt any one personality so it doesn’t become too real. But one day it starts speaking to Esther in a voice from her past, and Esther has to choose whether to let a loved one she’s lost forever live on in this artifical being.

I also really liked one story about a couple whose dog unexpectedly has puppies, and the main character suddenly sees her life and her relationship in a new light. And one about two children whose father has gone to war and who fight over an old crate of Captain America comics (the girl is deemed too young, and too female to read them. Then a visit to their grandfather in assisted living puts the war in an all too realistic light.

As with any book of short stories, some resonated less than others, but there weren’t any that didn’t spark interest and curiosity. If you enjoy stories that are eerie and cryptic, you’ll enjoy these. The writing is spare, with a lot in very short stories, but it’s also packed with emotion. I highly recommend this book. 

 This was a thoughtful, comprehensive view of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, beginning with the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling banning segregated schools, to the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s a different look at the civil rights movement from what we’re used to. We’re familiar with MLK, Rosa Parks, John Lewis and LBJ. But few of us are familiar with the people that carried out the groundwork of the movement.

This book describes an initiative to train activists and to provide literacy and civics education to disenfranchised black people of the American South. In the summer of 1954, Esau Jenkins and Septima Clark travelled to Tennessee’s Highlander Center, a rural interracial training school for social change founded by Myles Horton, a white educator with roots in the labor movement. They began working together to help black southerners pass the literacy tests required to vote in the era of Jim Crow, launching the Citizenship Schools project. This effort grew into a network of nine hundred schools, not only preparing thousands of Black citizens to vote, but creating a generation of activists trained in citizenship, organizing and political advocacy. Led by Clark, this effort brought literacy to adults, while also giving them an understanding of their history and rights. For Clark, voting was a way of giving someone self-respect. This work inspired Rosa Parks, who would go on to advance the movement.

If you like to read nonfiction about people you haven’t heard of, but should have, this one will fit the bill. It’s primarily about how four people worked with civil rights organizations and leaders to bring education and voting rights to the people. This book would be a perfect companion to Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King, or the graphic memoirs of John Lewis. I’d also recommend it to fans of Isabel Wilkerson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Bryan Stevenson.

Septima Clark was particularly inspiring to me. She spent her entire life teaching, and she saw that adults needed to be taught literacy in ways that were practical and not demeaning. One of her first acts of resistance was refusing to cancel her NAACP membership when her school district demanded it. She turned that resistance, for which she was fired, into a lifetime of pushing back against what she was told to do. By the end of her life she became a school board member for the school district that fired her, and received an honorary doctorate from the College of Charleston. She was honored by President Carter and has a school in DC named for her.

This book also reminds us that court cases and laws only mean something if they are enforced. Even when the Voting Rights Act got rid of racist literacy tests and fees, people were terrorized to keep them from voting. And while fair voting practices should lead to diverse representation, resulting in the rights of all people being respected, we have a very long way to go.

This won’t be for anyone with a casual interest in the civil rights movement. It’s a detailed look at the very small things that make up a movement, the day to day work and sacrifices. It’s a look at the highs and lows; the violence and the successes. No movement is perfect, and this one wasn’t either, particularly in its treatment of the women who did much of the work. Still, it shows how the work of many is needed behind the scenes to make real progress happen.

This book took me a long time to read, because there’s a lot to it and it’s a heavy subject.  It can be dry at times, despite its compelling subject. But it’s well-researched and added so much to what I knew of the civil rights movement, I think it’s a book everyone should read. Note: I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and publisher Atria Books. This book was published March 4, 2025.