Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy by the publisher in exchange for a review.

This novel set in a matriarchal magical world explores the brutal realities of classism, sexism and war all while weaving a political, cultural and linguistic feast so dense it is a joy to fully immerse yourself in it. An epic fantasy novel that truly encapsulates the meaning of epic, the world building and the rotating (and relatively big) cast of characters play the most important role in this book.
I would consider myself a quite fast reader and yet this novel took me nearly a month to get through. But my, what a joy it was to immerse myself in the characters, their lives, their fears and joys, the social structures, the incredibly intriguing money system, the politics. I could have read more. At first (and probably because English is not my mother tongue, even though I have a high proficiency) I struggled a bit with the language used in this novel, but quite soon I got used to it and it certainly added to the appeal this book held for me. In fact, the author invented fictional languages that all are built on different linguistic constructions with different songs and sayings and poems for each culture that speaks those languages, Hwoamish, Illasi, Ennish and the Underroad cant, elevating this novel from an intriguing look into a matriarchal society to something so much grander and more intriguing. The novel also explores how language and the ability to speak a certain language (and to speak it accent free) can be used to segregate and harm those oppressed in a society.
Besides the linguistics what I really enjoyed about this book was its commentary on oppression and the fact that most important characters are women and thus there were women that were great and women that were horrible and women that quite frankly disgust me. Women in this story can be anything, from warriors to political leaders to revolutionaries and criminals, including those that are sexist, creepy and abusive towards the men and women under their power and even simply average, just the way men are allowed to be in epic fantasies. I also adored the way trans identity was explored in this world, although I would have personally found it really interesting how this world would react to trans men. I did enjoy the exploration of how this world reacts to trans women, where they consider it important to affirm and honor a trans woman’s identity, while still seeing her (and probably any woman who cannot get pregnant, as that is a prerequisite for higher political office) as lower status due to their inability to birth a child.
The magic system is incredible, there’s intriguing religious systems, there’s a variety of societies outside of Sforre-Yomn, the main city this takes place in, there’s the colonialist English (well the fantasy version of them anyway), there’s an intriguing concept of sex work, there’s magical and mythical creatures and lore abound. I also enjoyed that the plot varied (depending on the character in question) between more action-focused scenes and more discussion-focused scenes and that this novel really explores what makes a main character, but giving each character a focused and detailed backstory and the only reason why the characters we followed were more important than other characters is because the story focused on them.
All in all, this novel deserves its page count because of the incredible and detailed world it weaves and it deserves a place beside other epic fantasy books. I can recommend it to fans of detailed epic fantasy, anybody who enjoys reveling in linguistics (and who has a high proficiency of English or is willing to look up A Lot of words) and anybody who wants a fascinating exploration of a fantasy matriarchy.

Trigger warnings include: child abduction, child abuse, ableism, murder, gore, violence, classism, sexism, slavery, mentions of past rape/threats of rape, transmisogynist/bioessentialist language (bootless as bollocks on a bride, womanhood proven by childbearing), self-harm, suicide, murder, torture, off-page murder of girls and boys for sexual pleasure (in which societally only the murder of girls is judged as truly bad) and probably some more that I missed. It’s a big book.

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

There are four main things that drew me to this memoir: 1) the interesting approach of dealing with one’s past by interacting with them, 2) the mention of pro-Palestinian activism (now more important than ever), 3) the working-class-to-PhD-from-Yale story, and the fact that I hoped that this story would do something that I hadn’t encountered in any of the other trans memoirs I’ve read yet (not that I’ve read all of them. But some, and this is one of the more interesting ones I’ve encountered). And as you can probably tell from my rating this memoir fulfilled all my wishes and more.
It always feels a bit weird to rate a memoir. Those are always personal stories, so my rating is based on if I feel the memoir painted an intriguing picture of a life (it did), if the summary matches what I expected to find inside (again, it did), and whether the writing style worked for me or not. In this case it was immediately clear to me that the author has a very interesting way with words. He is a very talented writer and manages to dig deep, reveal and examine his past and analyze his own though processes without leaving the reader too far outside of it.
I found myself deeply drawn into his story, one that follows his first forays into gay sexuality, both before transitioning and most of it after, before catapulting us (and him) to a family reunion at first in Tel Aviv since he wasn’t allowed to enter Israel as they refused to change his passport and then at his uncles’ birthday. After that we were told about his childhood, growing up in a country and a family that espouses Zionism and militarism as the only means of survival against a dangerous threat from outside and the repercussions of being against that that the author faced. The retelling of his young school years where honestly quite shocking to me. One of my favorite things discussed here was the linguistic aspects as well, since Hebrew is a very gendered language the author spends some time explaining that. He also talked a bit about how Yiddish is devalued in Israel, seen as the language of week diaspora speak. He talks about how he got out of serving in the IDF and then managed to escape to America, finding himself in the last place he could see himself in: Academia.
This memoir made me laugh and it made me cry and it made me feel so happy for Avi for having gotten where he is, while also breaking my heart for Talia. Talking with your past self is something that some trans memoirs do, but rarely does an author delve so deeply into the ways you can hate your past self while still embracingcompassion, because after all, you know and understand why your past self acted in these ways. To me, that was something that rang true, broke my heart and mended it again.
All in all, this is a memoir that dissects a past and then embraces it and if you are trans or if you experienced trauma or if you’re interested in the story of a person who grew up in Israel to disavow Zionism or about the sex life of a gay trans man or if you sometimes think about your past self and think “Damn, you made some fucked up decisions. Now come here and let me hug you.”: I would recommend you read this book!
Some more of my favorite parts of this memoir in no particular order: talking to Lou Sullivan after an HIV-scare, Zionism as a safe word, a short story about fucking your old self and embracing the parts that brought you pain, the fact that this memoir fully embraces sex and erotica as a means of narrating something of import, the discussions of academia and research into the stereotype threat, the bonds of survival and yes, also hatred, we can form with other marginalized people of our own community.

Tw: past csa, incest, internalized victim blaming, rape, sexual harassment, mentions of suicide (as in with your transition you killed my X), non-accepting family, transphobia, institutionalized child abuse, racism (anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, anti-rroma & sinti language), Zionism, cheating, lynchings, holocaust, health scares, STDs, choking

Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy by the publisher.

While this is the first of the Split Scream Volumes I’ve read, I absolutely adore it! It takes a fascinating genre of literature (the humble novelette), pairs two of them together with a similar theme and creates an incredible enjoyable reading experience for fans of short horror. These novelettes also manage to take what makes horror short stories so good and removes the fact that many horror short-stories are sadly too short, instead straddling the line between underdeveloped and dragging out perfectly. The pacing in both stories was outstanding and I never found myself bored. Both stories manage to built the worlds we are exploring well, give deep (and personal) insights into the main characters and their struggles and create a deeply uncomfortable dread running through it all.
If you are interested in stories exploring fraught family relationships, hauntings, creepy portals, dissociation and trauma and to do so in an afternoon (or in my case two, one for each novelette), I would really recommend you read these collections and I will certainly check out the other Volumes now.

Mother is Coming Home
A son taking care of his aging ailing mother. There is more than some bad blood between them and as resentments rise a strange glowing orb in the barn is the last thing they need. Or is it?
This story explores the horrors of family, how being forced into a caretaking position can cause resentment and how far some sons might go to finally be free. It is written in an utterly haunting fashion and I especially adored the inescapable dread throughout it.
Tw: domestic abuse, parental abuse, murder

Come to Daddy
Featuring a very unreliable narrator, this story follows a recently divorced dad, who dwells in his punk past and excessive drug use after his family life dissolved. And then there’s also this creepy Elijah Wood horror movie poster that the previous owners left up, that he somehow can’t get off the wall (or off his mind) either. Very intriguing look into a completely disassociated life and a gruesome, heartbreaking ending.
Tw: drug use, self-injury, gore, unsanitary