Character - 10
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 8
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 8
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 8.43 / 4 stars

Full review available on my blog from 3rd June 2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/06/03/we-can-never-leave-this-place/

Character - 8
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 8
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 8.29 / 4 stars
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This is really difficult to review because I think it’s best approached almost entirely blind. I highly recommend looking up the content warnings for this one – as with all of Eric LaRocca’s work – because he doesn’t flinch away from dark and horrifying topics in his horror. I’m pretty resilient, preferring my horror as grotesque as possible, and I still think that I have had a visceral shudder reaction to every single one of his novellas that I’ve read so far. It’s no understatement to say that Eric LaRocca is an insta-buy author for me now.

In only 100-ish pages, WE CAN NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE is claustrophobic and grim, with a teen girl living in some kind of dystopian (? war-torn?) society. I’m not sure what, exactly, and that felt very intentional. We only know what Mara does – the walls of her home with her murdered father and her cruel mother. The setting is flooded with filth and creepy crawlies, and I found myself desperately hoping that the story would end – just so Mara had the faintest hope of getting some peace. The writing is both macabre and fantastical, a kind of fairy-tale that makes the worst of the Grimm tales look child-appropriate. I think this is guaranteed to be one of those stories that I find myself thinking about over and over again.

At first I was confused, though no less engaged for it, as I was fed tidbits of explanation and moments of clarity more horrifying than the fantasy. That confusion was incredibly atmospheric and I think made this an even more enjoyable read. It built up to an ending that hit me like a gut punch, and one of the most spectacular moments of awful realisation that I have ever experienced while reading. This novella is a raw, violating fever dream without a single wasted word, and I’m awed at the fact that this isn’t just a spectacular piece of horror but a spectacular piece of technical writing too. If you like horror and you’re not reading Eric LaRocca’s work yet – it’s time to start.

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 9
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 8
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 8.71 / 4 stars

CAWPILE rated as of 12/04/2022.

original review: strangeworlds 3 WHEN??? the end of this holy god (5 stars)

Full review on my blog from 30/05/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/05/30/legends-and-lattes/

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 10
Writing - 10
Plot - 10
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 10

Rating: 9.71 / 5 stars
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No matter how many reviews of this book you read, it will not be what you expected. I’ve never read anything like this, and all I want is to read so much more in this genre. LEGENDS & LATTES is a cozy, slice-of-life fantasy. It’s got the energy of a D&D session, but the kind where you’re playing with a loving group of queers instead of combat-heavy players. Since reading this book, I’ve been thinking constantly about this quote:

“Things don’t have to stay as what they started out as.”

The more I think about it, the more I think I love this book for a lot of the reasons that I love A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT. I do love a big epic fantasy or a sprawling space opera, but there’s something about these low stakes slice-of-life stories that make me feel whole. The premise of LEGENDS & LATTES is that Viv has always been an adventurer but she wants a quiet life. Her quest now? Build her coffee shop and try and change everything about her life. She meets a small group of people who join her; a baker, a carpenter and a barista-to-be. I fell completely in love with this found family. I repeatedly teared up just because I felt so good and emotional about Viv’s journey of self-discovery and change. By the time I was halfway through, I ordered the audiobook so that I could a) force my fiance to read this book and b) listen to this over and over again as a comfort read.

The setting feels very familiar without requiring too much world-building. If you imagine a fantasy style village with taverns – that’s it. You’ve got it. This worked really well because it fit the slice-of-life style. I didn’t need stacks of descriptions and explanations to understand what I was looking at, which let me focus on the characters. That’s a good thing because the characters in this book are perfect. Thimble is my favourite by far but there wasn’t a character in this book that wasn’t excellently written. Our main cast (I’d call them a party, but that’s far too war-like for these soft babies) are loyal and loving, all outcasts in their own ways and finding a home together. The way that their relationships developed felt so real and natural that I feel like I could read about their day to day lives forever.

Honestly, I think that LEGENDS & LATTES is a book that will resonate with most readers, simply because who hasn’t wondered if starting something new would be too complicated, too hard, or if they’re too late or just not qualified for what they want to do? We’ve all wondered about our dreams and hopes, and LEGENDS & LATTES isn’t a fanciful rags-to-riches story, it’s a far more beautiful dream-to-reality story. It’s been joked before that the ‘real treasure are the friends we make along the way’ but in this story? They are. I hope that Travis Baldree writes more in this world, but I don’t need a sequel. I think a sequel would risk doing this story a disservice. LEGENDS & LATTES is whole and perfect, but I would love to see more slice-of-life stories blending those little hints of our world into a fantasy universe.

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 9
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 10

Rating: 9.29 / 5 stars

I originally rated this four stars (my review below) but when I CAWPILE'd it, it actually went up a star! Not that surprised, honestly. This is my third reread and I still love it just as much, which is impressive with such a chunky series.

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 9
Plot - 10
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 10

Rating: 9.43 / 5 stars

https://inkandplasma.com/2020/09/23/the-ruin-of-kings/

gore, slavery (sex slavery, child slavery), torture, murder, mentions of pedophilia, homophobia, misogyny, slut-shaming, explicit talk of rape, sexual assault, suicide (as ritual, due to topics of reincarnation), incest, prostitution, physical and verbal abuse.

I’m going to come out and say it. I loved the narrative style. I think the split timeline will definitely be a love it or hate it thing but I really enjoyed it. There was something strangely satisfying about seeing before and after an event, and slowly putting the pieces together on what was happening based on past-and-future clues. I also really respect how cleverly this was written, and what an amazing job Jenn Lyons did on managing not to spoil anything in the past timeline, even when events were mentioned in the future timeline. The use of implications and our own assumptions to keep the reader guessing? Brilliant. And I didn’t ever feel like information was being withheld from me for the sake of it. I really enjoyed both timelines. I liked the way that they seemed to parallel in places, and how they contrasted. One timeline was written in third person and the other in first person, because both were stories being told by two characters taking turns. I think using the varied perspectives was a really good idea because not only did it make sense in context, it gave each timeline a completely different feel. I could pick up the book mid-chapter and easily distinguish whose story I was reading. I didn’t have a single moment in the book where I wasn’t sure about that, and that’s some clever writing because I am so often confused by POV shifts in books.

I did find some bits confusing. The stone of shackles stuff in particular really stretched my ability to think straight, and I had to remember which character was which. There were also some characters who appeared right at the start, then disappeared for ages. That’s fine and realistic especially in a book spanning several years but when they reappeared just mentioned by name? It’d been 400 pages, I’d forgotten who they were. That being said, I still enjoyed this fiercely and at points was kind of gleeful about being confused, just enjoying how damn smart the book was. Considering its size, I read this really fast, and was desperate not to put it down. For a moment I even considered buying the ebook, just so I could also read it at work.

The main characters were the real delight in this series, though, and I treasured so many of them. Kihrin was the kind of main character that I got attached to in a heartbeat, despite his many and varied flaws, and while I sometimes wanted to hit him for being an idiot, he was a lot of fun to read about and I was always rooting for him. Galen in particular was a character I never expected to adore, but absolutely did, and alongside Teraeth and Tysento they were some of my favourite characters. There are a lot of similar character names in this book, and sometimes it takes a second to orient who the hell is who, but if you like epic fantasy this is well worth those moments of confusion.

The ending to this was really strong, and I’ve loved so many of the ensemble characters that I hope upon hope that The Name of All Things is full of them too – though this is a five part series I believe, so I might have to be patient. Either way, I can’t wait to jump into the next one.

CAWPILE'd 2022:

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 9
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7

Rating: 7.43 / 4 stars
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Full review on my blog on September 25th: https://inkandplasma.com/2020/09/25/the-name-of-all-things/

Trigger Warnings: misogyny, transphobia, murder, slavery, misgendering, mentions of rape, sexual assault, gore, violence, torture.

If this wasn’t a sequel I probably would have DNF’d it. Which is a bold statement, considering that I rated this 4 stars. It would have been 5 stars if it wasn’t for the first 140 pages. It took me four days to get past those first few pages, which doesn’t sound like a lot until I put it in context – I finished the remaining 450 pages in one day. It’s a really weird feeling, because I absolutely adored this sequel, I liked it as much if not more than its predecessor, The Ruin of Kings, it just took a lot longer to get really good. The Name of All Things is a much slower paced, politically focused book, whereas The Ruin of Kings was pretty much constant action. I don’t hate a political focus, if anything I actually liked that a lot, but it took so long to really get my attention and part of that I think is because The Ruin of Kings ended in such drama and emotion that I thought we were going to plough through into something really interesting. Instead the book started by setting up Joratese culture and worldbuilding and introducing us to a whole new cast of characters – Kihrin isn’t really in this until we get a good way into the book.

The Joratese culture is interesting, if a bit strange. Everything is… horse-centric. They have sentient horses, they describe their colourings in the same terms used to describe horses (gray, palomino, etc) and they have a fascinating split gender-sex model using terms like stallion, mare and gelding to describe someones sex and their gender, though the two don’t correlate at all. For example, our main character Janel is a stallion, her gender is male, but she’s also a mare, her sex is female and she uses female pronouns but male gendered addressess, like Count. I loved this whole addition to the book, and it’s never made to feel like it’s something weird and other, just a facet of their culture. The way that they handle transgender members of the ‘herd’ is brilliant and I absolutely love to see fantasy doing interesting things with gender and sex. Their culture is literally entirely horse based, so they settle things like knights, with horseback tournaments and duels. It’s pretty cool, but I did feel like we spent so long setting up the world instead of moving on to the more interesting plot stuff.

I love Brother Qown, one of the new POV characters, and I grew to love Janel too. I missed some of our favourite characters from the first book, but I did get the strong feeling that this book was setting up the rest of our character cast, ready for the rest of the series to be those characters Doing Good and Killing Evil. I haven’t started The Memory of Souls yet so I might be wrong on that. The first two-thirds of the book focus on the years leading up to Kihrin breaking the Stone of Shackles and shattering gaeshes everywhere, and that was actually a really fun detail. Meeting insanely powerful characters who had been gaeshed, only to know that everything was definitely about to go wrong when the finale of The Ruin of Kings was happening was absolutely wild and I could feel doom on every page. More than our new characters though, I loved the complexities in this book where it came to the ‘bad guys’ we already knew. I don’t know what Jenn Lyons was planning on doing in this book, but she managed to make me love Relos Var. Yeah, sure, he’s evil, but you know what? I kind of love the asshole. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is stretched to its fullest extent in this book, and it added so much depth and excitement to see our characters working alongside our bad guys, sometimes willingly and sometimes not. The line between good and evil is fully shattered in this book and I still don’t know whose side I’m going to be on in the final battle, let alone what’s going to happen when that battle comes around.

The Name of All Things was less confusing than The Ruin of Kings, particularly as the framing device worked a lot better here and it was still a largely linear story, and now I feel like I have a much stronger grasp on the universe, and the boundaries of power and god-hood. Consequences seem like a much bigger deal in this book, and there’s definitely a lot of debate on whether the ends justify the means, especially as both sides are seen doing heinous things in the name of Doing Right. Despite my extreme frustrations with the beginning of this book, I think this is a better book than the first one, if only because right now I’m alive with the scope of this world. There’s three more books to come (The Memory of Souls, then two more) and I can tell that this is going to build to an absolutely epic conclusion.

DNF @ 20%

I have mixed feelings about this book. The final nail in the coffin for me was the book repeating the same exact description two paragraphs apart in a way that didn't feel like it was done for effect but just repetitive. That's kind of my problem with the whole book. As a novella or a short story, I would love this. I loved Aunt Marla, Alex and Beatrice and this idea of this huge known fact being repeatedly erased by those in charge. I liked the combined faux-academic texts and memoir writing. Unfortunately, already by 20%, I was bored of it. Every academic text section was telling me the same thing over and over again, and even in the memoirs there was nothing new happening. It felt a little patronising to have the same information told to me again and again, and very much like I was being told how to feel - you can only belabour a point so far. The writing itself is decent, if a little repetitive, but this ultimately couldn't drive me to keep picking it up.

Full review available on my blog from June 6th 2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/06/06/the-path-of-thorns/

Character - 9
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 9
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 8.00 / 4 stars
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I read ALL THE MURMURING BONES last year and absolutely loved it. It was a different kind of gothic horror than I was used to, so I was keen to read THE PATH OF THORNS, another gothic story set in the same universe. After a slow start, this story picked up to a satisfying and page-turning climax, full of gothic horror and dark fairytale magic.

Thanks to Titan Books for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.

THE PATH OF THORNS had a bit of a slow start, and it’s possible that, if it had been my first book from A.G. Slatter, I might have DNF’d it. It took me several days to read the first 30% of the book, then I read the last 70% in one day – once it picked up, it really picked up. As a dark, witchy fairytale this was a fun read, full of atmospheric and gothic horror tropes reused in interesting ways. I liked how casually magical the book was, especially in the earlier pages as little hints are dropped about Asher’s hidden secrets. About a third of the way in, we discover what the synopsis means by ‘Asher is not as much a stranger as it might first appear’ and from then it’s both intense and increasingly magical in fascinating ways. I can’t talk too much about the magic without spoilers, but the witchcraft was fascinating to me, with each spell and potion feeling very authentic for the time period – you could convince me every single spell was a real spell, with an extra spark of magic.

As things got from bad to worse, I found myself racing through the book to find out what was happening, praying for a safe and happy ending for Asher and the children – the only characters that are easily loveable. I enjoyed the fairytales that were threaded into the book, through Asher’s readings we got to see more of the world and to see her understanding of the magic system in this universe. I felt like this book left me understanding more of the world than I did after reading ALL THE MURMURING BONES but neither felt bogged down with world building.

There’s a relationship between Asher and Eli that I liked, but I’d hesitate to call it a romance. It’s not a significant part of the plot, as Asher has far higher priorities, but I liked the way they came to lean on each other and how she turned to Eli for comfort. Ultimately, this story is about Asher and her ghosts – emotional and literal – and so she’s the focus. I also loved the complicated relationship between Asher and Luned. From hate to reluctant support, there was something deeper than friendship there and I really enjoyed seeing the female loyalty despite personal dislike. To me, the characters and their relationships were the highlight of this book, and it was my love for Asher that had me reading until past-midnight and fighting off sleep so I could find out what happened to her.

Asher’s motivations are tangled in familial trauma, promises and debts owed and a desperate need for approval. It made her feel real and complicated, and left me still loving Asher despite the moments where I hated the choices she was making. It’s this depth of character combined with the fairytale-prose and gothic horror that makes A.G. Slatter a guaranteed read for me, especially for books set in this Sourdough world. I know I’ll be reading any future releases I can get my hands on.

Full review is available on my blog from, 27/05/2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/05/27/the-mask-of-mirrors/

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 8
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 8.57 / 4 stars
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I listened to the audiobook of this, and I had to listen to it in smaller chunks. As much as I enjoyed it, I think it would have been overwhelming to read it in one long sitting. That’s because THE MASK OF MIRRORS is a very complicated political fantasy, set in a gorgeous Venetian-esque world. It’s heavy on the politics, complex and nuanced, and light on fantasy and while I personally thought this balance was fantastic and found it really enjoyable, I can understand why this wouldn’t be for everyone. Even if I do want to force all my friends to read it.

The setting was really interesting. The worldbuilding wasn’t spoon-fed to me, but I managed to keep up fairly easily. The magic itself was really interesting. The main ways we saw that happen were the patterns, and through circles. Patterns are very much like Tarot, but inspired by the ‘masks’ of this universe, and I liked that we got to see Ren using them to con her marks and using them in as a legitimate form of future telling. It was really interesting to see this dual effect, and highlighted the duality of Ren’s character. It also made for a really clever way for Ren to manipulate her marks. The circles are more complicated, and I almost definitely don’t fully understand them, but I find them fascinating anyway. They were an intricate form of magic, but still fairly subtle. We didn’t get wand-battles and flashy spells in this book, and I really enjoyed it as a refreshingly different sort of fantasy. The world is also incredibly queer-normative, which is something I always like to see.

Ren’s characters (yes plural) are a real highlight in this book. She’s come to the city to impersonate a member of House Traementis, a long-lost cousin, with the intention of stealing enough riches to set her and her sister up for life. We get to see several cons from Ren throughout the novel, both long-term cons to secure her position and short-term cons to earn Ren and Tess enough coin to support their lifestyle until their main con is complete. This frugality was actually really interesting to see. It showed how fragile their lifestyle was, and their creativity was really enjoyable – especially as Tess created endless fashion options from the same fabric, which the amateur sewer in my heart absolutely loved. I liked all of the characters Ren had created for herself, and the way that she used each to different effects to manage her marks. One of my favourite facets of this book is that Ren’s arc didn’t go anywhere near what I expected. She came to the city to con the Traementis family, and instead ended up with a found family she wanted to protect.

I loved the Rook mystery. The book took so long to tell us who the Rook was, and I had about eight different suspects over the course of the book. I loved the Robin-Hood-esque character, using incredible swordsmanship and a magical mask to stay anonymous while acting as a vigilante against the ruling families. It was a really fun addition to the story, and I especially enjoyed the way that the Rook and Ren kept encountering each other in their different identities. So convoluted and so fun.

The last thing I want to say is that I absolutely love Vargo, and I will always convince myself that an openly asshole character will somehow not be an asshole, then feel betrayed when they’re still an asshole. Why did this surprise me? I wish I knew. I can’t wait to see what else Vargo and Ren get up to in the second book, which I very luckily received for my birthday.