heartbrekker's Reviews (797)

Can more horror science fiction release please? I need more content like this novella!

I binged this audiobook in less than ten hours, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was immediately sucked back into my thirteen year old self when I watched Alien for the first time, and while this novella isn't QUITE like that movie, the nostalgia was there anyway.

Now... I am not a stem girlie, but surprisingly, Ness Brown did a fantastic job utilizing engineer and scientific language without overwhelming me. I wouldn't have initially expected this story to be a debut because it has a strong overarching plot with great spaceship world building. You can tell that Ness is a scientist purely from her writing style because she's very direct. The writing doesn't have any lyrical prose because she's describing the scenes as concisely as possible and then jumping into what's next for the characters. This type of writing style, in my opinion, is less common because people like to create lush descriptions of the scenes, so Ness was refreshing in that she doesn't mess around with her writing. Moreover, this writing style led the story to be fast paced with constant action around nearly every corner and sometimes... even within the walls.

See what I did there? Hehe.

Anyway, switching gears to characters, Jacklyn Albright was another refreshing element to this novella. Her father, the Captain of the ship Calypso, is unresponsive in his room, and she's forced to take up the mantle of running the ship, which only worsens due to the fact that Calypso has limited fuel and supplies. Can they make it back to Earth? Can they even turn back to Proxima b, their failed colony on another planet? The centuries worth of their journey ahead doesn't look so promising. All of these thoughts are plaguing Jack as she tries to pick the best course of action, particularly as a possible coup is forming from the civilian passengers on board. And then, finally, to make matters worse, an intruder arrives, so all hell truly breaks loose. The entire time Jack is a solid force even as her own terror completely envelopes her. She is the sort of Captain anyone on board a ship would be honored to have because protecting her ship and passengers always comes first. She's certainly put through the ringer throughout this 176 page novella, but she sticks the landing as one of my favorite characters.

Also, for anyone curious, the diversity within this novella was THROUGH THE ROOF. The entire crew was from a wide variety of backgrounds across Earth, and Jack is even LGBTQ+ due to her relationship with fellow crew member. While they're a few characters that reflect the darker versions of humanity, the crews constant empathy and communication towards one another was phenomenal. There's a genuine respect and care for safety, so Jack is again a perfect example of a Captain who will not let her crew do anything that she doesn't also do. It's just refreshing to see such a natural and realistic depiction/ reflection of the world's diversity but in a space setting. I'm really hyped to see what else Ness releases in the future because if it was anything like this, then I'll be lined up front and center to get a copy myself.

Lastly, as any great horror book has, Ness Brown brought the creepy crawlies. I felt transported back to Alien (but honestly even better because there's a whole crew and not just one woman fighting) whenever Jack is forced to confront whatever came aboard the Calypso. From the eerie darkness unfurling to the inhumane screams down the hallway, I had goosebumps all over my body. It was a blast *cue the plasma blasters* reading this book, and I'm definitely going to recommend it to any sci-fi or horror fans.

Thank you Tor Nightfire for the audiobook ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fonda Lee is the writer that always triumphs. Her writing constantly brings me to tears, and I cannot stop adoring the characters that she creates. I was a bit worried with this novella that Fonda wouldn't have enough time to create an attachment between reader and protagonist, but I was entirely wrong. I've been starting to get into novella's lately, and Untethered Sky is one of the few that uses its short length to its advantage. With action packed sequences of rocs in flight to a fated manticore hunt by the crown prince, this novella is a 1000% worth the read. No one will be surprised that Fonda is able to create such a masterful story within only a 160 page novella.

Ester, the protagonist, is very different from Fonda's cast back in the Greenbone Saga. The closest comparison that I can think of is probably Anden. Ester is a much more reserved lead, and she is constantly awkward and anxious. After the trauma of her childhood, none of this is surprising, but she has this need to be better for that younger version of herself who essentially lost everything. She has pretty much vowed to become a ruhker due to those events, which is an incredibly dangerous job— not only due to the manticore hunting but also the fact that giant rocs are wild creatures themselves. Ester looks past this danger not because she's merely brave, but because she wants to protect the world from manticores, especially since she couldn't protect herself long ago. It's these complexities that make her a dynamic, compelling lead.

Moreover, to not spoil anything, the ending of this book is extremely unique. It's a creature/ human relationship based novella, and I think when a lot of people hear this, they interpret that a particular way. I certainly did. Books with animals in the main plot always remind me of my own kitties curled up next to me while I read. But Untethered Sky is not like the "aww, cute" feelings. It's a reminder of nature vs. nurture as well as partnership vs. duty. It's going to poke holes into humanity's relationship to the wild in a way that most people won't ever think about. Can we ever really tame the wild, or do our egos merely trick us into believing so? There's something so profound about Fonda forcing us to look at the truth when we definitely don't want to.

Thank you Tordotcom for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"For this scribe has read a great many of these accounts and taken away another lesson: that to be a woman is to have your story misremembered. Discarded. Twisted. In courtyard tales, women are the adulterous wives whose treachery begins a husband's descent into murderous madness or the long-suffering mothers who give birth to proper heroes. Biographers polish away the jagged edges of capable, ruthless queens so they may be remembered as saints, and geographers warn believing men away from such and such a place with scandalous tales of lewd local females who cavort in the sea and ravish the foreign interlopers. Women are the forgotten spouses and unnamed daughters. Wet nurses and handmaidens; thieves and harlots. Witches. A titillating anecdote to tell your friends back home or a warning."

All I can visualize from this line above is Shannon pounding it out on the keys with her entire heart and soul.

Shannon Chakraborty has truly done it again with creating an enriching world, centuries in the past, that delves into the folklore and cultures in the regions of SWANA. The Daevabad trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart, but it was beyond refreshing to see Shannon take on a different time period with a new cast of characters. She's pushing the boundaries of fantasy by spearheading this new trilogy with a middle aged mother, something that brings pure joy to my heart. I can see myself in ten to twenty years rereading this book, if I choose to have children or even not, merely because I'll be the same age as Amina al-Sirafi. We like to say that women are more than just motherhood, but a lot of time that sentiment doesn't hold out in fantasy books. Well, Shannon proves that 110% wrong.

"You may be a pirate now, nakhudha, but it is neither crime nor gold that makes your heart beat. You are an explorer."

Amina al-Sirafi is a prickly, protective, thrice married mother who is currently retired from her old life on the seas as a famous explorer/ pirate, but she's forced to return to her old ways when a forceful client, a grandmother, threatens Amina into searching for the client's kidnapped granddaughter. And to be perfectly honest, all hell breaks lose from then on. From prison breaks to magical islands, Amina is pulled through the ringer trying to finish this job and return to her daughter. While this book is very much adventurous and epic in scope, the heart of it lies with the relationship between a mother and daughter. Their connection underscores so much of this book that in many ways nobody could fault Amina for any of her antics because they all come back to getting back home. This(!) was my favorite aspect to the book. Although, the humor and wit were an extremely close second! It wouldn't be a Shannon Chakraborty book without some chaotic sass/ jokes.

"What a wondrous experience to go anywhere you wish with only the wind."

I remember hearing somewhere, possibly on Shannon's social media pages, that this book would have a distant connection to the Daevabad trilogy, but I never thought it would be in this manner. Amina is as human as they come, besides her accidental demonic husband, who so happens to be the father of her daughter. She's not used to magic or even the idea of magical creatures/ beings. So when she washes up on an island of pure magic and sees daevas for the first time, I quite frankly howled with laughter as said daevas dashed back into the sea to possibly return back home to Daevabad. It was just such a wonderful cameo even if the individuals weren't anyone we knew. Albeit, there is a character from The City of Brass within this book, and I'm very intrigued to see if they continue to be a driving force of this trilogy. In many ways, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi did a lot of set up for the next two books in the trilogy, which is one of my only real gripes because it muddled the pacing and focus, kinda whiplashing us back and forth. I believe, once the second book releases, I'm simply going to perish because Amina has such a deeper connection to the magical side of this world than ever before. Plus, Shannon has a particular talent for writing iconic second books in trilogies because The Kingdom of Copper is pure perfection/ still my favorite book by her. I'm actually hoping the crew can make some journeys further out into the Indian Ocean like eastern Asia, for example, because my whole heart wants Majed to check off his bucket list dream of visiting it. I have a feeling we'll definitely explore more, so my fingers are crossed in excitement.

"You do realize that if you want to be a proper storyteller, your words need to flow like warm honey, not choke like the stones of a dry academic."

Anyway, I loved the crew with my whole heart. I'm so happy that Shannon continues to write such diverse casts of characters with the best dynamics and chemistry. But the standout diversity of this book, for me, was honestly religion. Religion is a very complicated reality for books with historical settings. Most authors would merely brush the entire conversation under the rug, thinking it too complicated, but Shannon puts the pedal to the medal by having a multi-faith crew. She doesn't shy away. While I cannot speak on the Muslim representation, Dalila is a Christian, my culture, and I found her conversation with Amina after stumbling upon an island town to be one of the more profound scenes within the novel. It may even be my favorite scene because of the honesty and friendship that bubbles between them by the end. Dalila needed peace in that moment, and she wanted to be heard by Amina, and she was. It's one of the reasons why Amina is such a phenomenal captain. She listens when it counts!! It just made me happy to see these crew members respect one another's faith, especially when religion is such a testy point of conversation in our reality right now. If only our world could talk maturely about religion and RESPECT all religions like the example set in this book. I'm not asking for perfection; no one is, but it would be great.

"People do not take to the seas if the land offers better, and the kind of men lured to a life of smuggling and raiding are not gentle."

Overall, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is definitely worth a read through, and I'm super excited to see people see the mini cameos and slight connections to her debut series. These adventures are only gonna get more chaotic and rough as the series progresses, but I think Amina has a good foundational support system with her found family on the sea as well as her blood family back on land.

"...are not all mothers capable of being monsters when it comes to their children?"

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s hard to imagine that the last time I read this was in 2011 when I was a very different person—11 years old to be exact. Everlost was one of the first books besides The Hunger Games or Percy Jackson to truly blow my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks, and I had to marathon the rest of the trilogy. Sitting here at 23, I’m excited to see that I feel the exact same way. All I want to do is grab Everwild and read my day away.

Nostalgic books have an indescribable power, and while this book is still horrific to think about (thanks, Neal), I like to think it helped shape me into a better person, a more thoughtful person.

Ever since I read Allegiant on release day and marathoned it until that controversial ending, I've somehow been unable to finish any of Veronica Roth's other books. They sound right up my alley, but something holds me back—until now with Arch-Conspirator.

"It's not cowardice to run from an inferno rather than spit water at it... It's survival."

I loved this reimagining of such a brutal and tragic play. I think it's hard to comprehend Oedipus's family and specifically Antigone's life because of the elephant in the room—incest—but somehow Veronica Roth twisted this play into her own dystopian, sci-fi whims and created something just as painful yet warning readers of humanity's prejudices and self-destructive nature.

"Defiance leads to instability, and instability leads to extinction."

In a world where radiation has devastated the planet, the last city on Earth survives in its safe lil' bubble, hoping for the day where they can inhabit the rest of the planet again. Humans have reached "immortality" through the Archive, where genes of every dead human are stored, and nearly no natural conceptions occur due to the prejudice that those born naturally, without the Archive, do not have souls. Souls are Extracted within 48 hours of the individual's demise, and an Extractor is placed under their bellybutton to retrieve the soul. You find out later due to context clues that the "soul" is actually that individual's sex cells (sperm or eggs), which creates a fascinating conversation about identity and ancestry. Are we destined to be exactly like our ancestors? I'd immediately say "no," but then my question becomes "why/ how did this world start to see sex cells as immortality?" My only answer was: when the world is a ravaged wasteland of natural disasters or even radiation, what will we believe about ourselves to bring comfort?

Anything.

"Silence, I supposed, is its own kind of message and its own kind of ending. Just not one that anyone wants to hear."

Antigone and her siblings were conceived naturally. Oedipus and Jocasta wanted children that looked just like them, and now the rest of their city sees these children as grotesque, soulless shells. They're a cry against nature in this city's eyes, and they pay the price for it. Antigone and her siblings lose their parents after a violent riot. The first freely elected leader—Oedipus—dies by violence, and now she and her three siblings live with their uncle Kreon, who is a tyrant in everything but name. A lot of pain and hatred boil under Antigone's skin because of these circumstances, and she cannot withhold it when she's around her siblings Pol and Ismene. Her oldest brother Eteocles actually plays servant to Kreon, so their relationship is pretty much nonexistent at this point. And just like in the original Antigone play, familicide and rebellion force the plot to unfurl at top speed. Antigone was destined to be retold in a sci-fi, dystopia lens, and I'm so thankful Roth wrote it for readers.

"You'll never fear your wife. But every wife fears her husband, even if she doesn't say so."

Arch-Conspirator does not leave much room for twiddling thumbs or slow conversation. It's 128 pages of pure rage and loyalty. Antigone is my favorite kind of heroine. She's prickly and frank, angry and empathetic. She makes a promise to her brother in a restaurant and will throw her own life away to keep said promise. My only critique is that I wish I had more pages of her. I wish we got to see some of the siblings longer, but I also understand why their time was cut short because this is Antigone's story. Antigone reminded me of a young girl named Tris, but also, Antigone was wholly her own with a sense of self and direction most characters could never dream of having. She's got a destiny, a plan, and she'll see it through.

"I asked my father, once, why he chose to curse us before we were born. Because to be born as my siblings and I were was to be doomed from the start."

In many ways, Arch-Conspirator is one of the most true-to-source reimaginings that I've read in a long time. The end definitely switches gears in its own unique conclusion, but I still think it is extremely reminiscent of the play's end. Also, while I don't know tons of details about Antigone, I loved the relationships explored by Roth. The engagement tension between Antigone and Haemon, Kreon's son and heir, was one of the most notable. Again, I wish we got more page time with them because of Antigone's initial hatred of him, which blends into neutrality and curiosity by the end—maybe even a bit of regret.

"One age's horror is another age's wonder..."

I'll always have an infinite amount of questions when it comes to this world, characters, etc. because it's a fascinating novella. My time was limited, but I'm so happy that I got to explore it in the time I had. If you're a fan of the original Antigone and have a taste for sci-fi and dystopia, please pick this up.

"All women in our city know the procedures for losing a spouse. But there are no procedures for losing a child."

Thank you Tor Books for an early finished copy to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I fell in love with Rebecca Ross's writing early in 2022 when I read A River Enchanted. It became my first five start year of that year, and I've made it my duty to get through her older books and newer as this year moves forward. Well, I read Divine Rivals in less than twenty four hours, and I can honestly say it was worth the marathon. It's not that I didn't think Rebecca would wrench my soul in half, but I am still surprised with how much this book affected me. Moreover, I was lucky enough to listen to the ARC audiobook for the majority of my reading experience, and it was fantastic. I'm still a newbie with audiobooks, but I loved the sound of the drums and music at the start. At the end when it returned, I felt audibly thrown into the world due to the chaos unfolding. I'll highly recommend it to any reader who loves audiobooks!

For starters, Divine Rivals is a historical fantasy that's reminiscent of World War I. The gods of this world are warring, and the mortals are stuck in the crosshairs. Eighteen year old Iris Winnow dropped out of high school to start working at her local newspaper office, and now she's competing for the columnist promotion against her rival Roman Kitt. But at home Iris is relentlessly worrying about her alcoholic mother, and her brother Forest who ran off to war without any explanation and has not sent her a single letter like he promised to. Although, Iris continues to write him on her grandmother's typewriter, and those those letters mysteriously vanish—hopefully to her brother.

Well, the letters don't arrive to Forest and, instead, appear in the hands of Roman—said rival at her work.

Divine Rivals continues to unravel the story of Iris and Roman along with their mysteriously linked/ magical typewriters. Books about writing always snag my attention, but this one felt specifically raw and bittersweet. The love of not only the leads but their loved ones is a punch to the gut, and I saw my own family and friends reflected in the words Rebecca wrote. The yearning between Iris and Roman in particular was torturously beautiful, and I loved every minute of it. The ending for them both has left a hole in my heart, and Rebecca, it better get sewn up in the sequel. I don't think I can handle much more!

The most surprising part of this book actually lies with the setting. I read a lot of fantasy, but it is very rare to find a modern version of it that is not set within our own world. Divine Rivals specifically takes tons of inspiration from WWI, in my opinion, from the typewriting communication to trench/ gas warfare. The history buff within me was transferred back to my college days where I listened to lectures on the war, and I vividly saw all of the war scenes Iris experienced. There's something especially terrifying about WWI because of the gas and trench weaponry. When Rebecca describes the rolling gas coming towards us, my own throat felt pinched like a straw, mouth as dry as the Sahara. I'm both dreading and excited for Rebecca to show us more of this war in the sequel.

Now I saw Rebecca described this book as her first YA focusing on romance, even called it romantasy, and she excelled. I'm not a big romantasy fan, but if more of them are like this, then, I need to batten down the hatches and devour them ASAP. Divine Rivals was just a reminder that I'm a sucker for Rebecca's writing in any genres, any form. I'm really hoping the wait for this sequel will not be too terribly long because that ending, like I said before, HURT.

My only gripe with this book was the sprinkling of crumbs when it came to knowledge about the gods. Now I know based off of the end that Rebecca was withholding that information for a reason, but I was curious throughout the entire book leading up to that moment what the gods themselves had to do with this story. I'm VERY excited for the sequel just because the gods will finally be unveiled to us. It's gonna be great!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this early! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Romance books are a very fickle genre. If your love language and quirks aren't represented, then the book can feel disconnected or awkward. Sometimes romance books represent fetishes and dynamics that turn people off, which happens occasionally for me.

Secretly Yours was of those cases. Specifically, the intense sexual dominance of Julian in regards to Hallie was not something I enjoyed. Don't get me wrong—I love dominance when done right *insert It Happened One Summer* but that wasn't the case here. The power dynamic just felt odd since Hallie had a crush on Julian since she was fourteen, so a lot of times this whole relationship felt more like infatuation than an actual healthy relationship. Hallie is emotionally at a disadvantage in this relationship because she has so much history with her crush on Julian, whereas he did not remember her at all from their near-first kiss. Plus, my feelings over this unequal power dynamic worsened when Hallie's virginity was brought up. Now I like the fact that this book shows virgins can be any age, and there is no shame in that, but the fetishization of virginity is not something I'm personally into. Julian just gave me the ick, to be honest, as he gushed for pages on her "virgin" tightness/ lack of other partners. Just ew. Not for me AT ALL. This book was pretty much tainted with that the rest of its length.

Now I'm excited for Unfortunately Yours. The synopsis already makes me think this relationship dynamic will be much more my speed. I have a physical ARC of it staring at me through time and space over on my shelf, so I'm really REALLY hoping I can have a fun ride with the sequel. Who doesn't love enemies to lovers involving a mutually beneficial marriage of convenience?

Thank you Avon and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this early. All thoughts and opinions are my own.