Read for the 2020 Hugos. My second piece of short fiction from Rivers Solomon, and I'd definitely like to read more from them! The story of a slave carving out a place in the world and the supernatural beings she births (quite literally) after violent actions, this was a powerful tale that I think would be a great one to read over and over -- I think you'd get more out of it each time.

What an absolutely delightful book! I knew that I would enjoy this, as I adore Poston's Once Upon a Con series, and my expectations were absolutely met.

The thing that is most charming about this series is the combination of everyday fans and the actors playing characters they admire, and Bookish and the Beast tackles this dynamic best. I adored Vance's cameo in The Princess and the Fangirl and was so excited to see his perspective. As the villain of the franchise and of Starfield, Vance has a really interesting insight into celebrity life and culture.

Rosie was a lovely character and I loved her bookish nature, but she was definitely the most generic heroine of the series so far. However, I really loved her wonderfully supportive friend group and her dad -- especially as he's a single dad just doing his best! She was a sweet character, but definitely not the most interesting character in the story.

As you'd expect with Poston's books, Bookish and the Beast is a lovely contemporary fantasy retelling that deals with darker issues (CW for parental death before the book begins and harassment). She's one of the few contemporary YA authors I read and I just adore this series!

Finished my third (!!) read through of The Way of Kings! Given the nine years between my first and third read of this book, so much about my fantasy tastes and opinions has changed, but The Way of Kings remains a fabulous book.

I absolutely tore through it the first time I read it and couldn't understand why so many readers said it was slow in the first half. However, I now totally get where they're coming from. As the first book in a 10-book series, there is so much setup that must be done in order to lay the groundwork for the later events, both in this book and later ones, that I really did feel that slow pace at the beginning. The payoff is absolutely worth it, but I did struggle a little until the halfway point.

I still love all the characters and the world a much as I did the first time, although I didn't find The Way of Kings as mindblowing and gamechanging this time around. Looking forward to rereading Words of Radiance!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

A new book from Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of my favourite authors, is always an exciting event. The Doors of Eden was a book that immediately caught my attention with its stunning cover and intriguing concept. I had sky-high expectations for this book, and I am so pleased to say thatthey were absolutely met! The Doors of Eden is an incredibly accessible, fun, and thought-provoking science fiction story with Tchaikovsky's signature twist.

If you haven't read any of his books before, or are newer to reading sci-fi, I think this would be a great place to start with Tchaikovsky's science fiction work due in part to the fact that it is mostly set in the real world. Not only does the familiarity of London streets and modern life help set the scene for readers, the characters are totally relatable and face real issues. This real-world setting is something new for him, I believe, and it works incredibly well! Don't worry though, there are plenty of trilobites, rat people, and other strange terrestrial and alien beings to fill the pages as well as humans!

While the plot and world are excellent, the characters are what really drive this story. We have multiple points of view across the book, and they intertwine together so effectively. This is one of the rare books where I enjoyed every POV, rather than preferring one over others because each voice was used so intentionally and added their own flavour to the story -- I can't think of a single one that should be cut. I absolutely loved Lee and Mal, our lesbian cryptid hunters and introduction to the book, as well as Alison,  the MI5 analyst who sees a little more than the rest of us. However, my absolute favourite was Dr Kay Amal Khan, the fabulously smart-mouthed, cigarette smoking genius who will save us all. The chemistry between these human characters and the relationships they form (or are forced into) with the non-humans they encounter are just fantastic. The audiobook narrator does a great job of bringing these characters to life -- although I did have to speed it up to nearly 2x as she speaks quite slowly -- and she masters the sharp dialogue. If you're going to pick this one up, I'd highly recommend the audiobook!

The Doors of Eden is an incredibly pacey, otherworldly, and fun science fiction adventure -- who would have thought the end of the world would be so delightful? A must-read for fans of Tchaikovsky's work and newcomers alike -- you'll absolutely tear through it!



Note (plus marked spoiler): It would be disingenuous for me to not mention the treatment of Kay by other characters in the story, as I worry it may make some readers, especially trans readers, uncomfortable. She's a trans woman and while I thought Tchaikovsky did a great job of making her a complex and fabulous character, some of the side characters misgender and deadname her throughout the book in passing. This is meant to show the ignorance of these characters, but I wanted to give a heads up about these moments.

*Minor spoilers below*

There is also a Very Bad Villain who refuses to accept her identity and forces her to masculinise in a small part of the book.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Read for the 2020 Hugos. A really interesting story about war and motherhood. Lovely writing, as you'd expect from Harrow, that plays with gender and gender roles.

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m an enthusiastic listener of true crime podcasts, having been caught up in the My Favorite Murder craze back when it started, but have read very few true crime books. While I’ve moved on to better and more responsible podcasts, my interest in true crime remains. When the opportunity to read Killing for Company crossed my path, I decided to give it a go, despite some of my discomfort around true crime reporting and attitudes.

Before we dive in, I did (and still do) have some concerns with reading true crime — especially a book written in the 80’s like Killing for Company. Murder, especially when committed by the ‘heavy hitters’, has a tendency to be sensationalised, the victims forgotten, or the killers themselves turned into objects of fascination or worship. I have a huge issue with those true crime aficionados who treat it as pure entertainment — I’ve seen some awful things be said to and about victims and their families over the years — and have always been worried that true crime books will fall into this category of sensationalism and awfulness. One of the reasons I enjoyed The Five so much is that Rubenhold remembered the women who lost their lives and didn’t fall into the trap of seeing Jack the Ripper as some kind of fascinating and mysterious man.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way (sorry), I really felt like Masters did a great job of reporting on facts of the case in this book. A wealth of the information, as he explains in the opening pages, was provided by Neilson himself after his arrest and his his own words are often used in the book. Nilson filled dozens of notebooks with writings on his life and experiences (as well as questionable poetry) while in prison and gave the author access to everything. Of course, much of this means we have to rely on Nilson being truthful about his actions and state of mind, but I felt Masters did a good job of reminding the reader of this — just because it’s a first hand account doesn’t mean it’s an honest account.

The book acts as a biography for the murderer, starting from his childhood in Scotland to his lonely adulthood in London. Masters speculates on where this man’s fascination with death and instinct to kill may have come from, as well as why he’s held up as such a fascinating case for psychologists, as he doesn’t neatly fit the mould of any particular mental illness like psychopathy or narcissism. He lets Nilsen describe the acts of murder he committed in his own words — a little unsettling, to say the least — and speculates on why he killed some men, but let others go. It has an incredibly in-depth and detailed account of the trial and post-conviction reactions, and is generally a very well-written book.

The one issue I did have with Killing for Company is one that I think would have been hard for Masters to have completely avoided — it is far, far too sympathetic to Nilson. It’s understandable that Masters connected with this man through all of their years of correspondence and interviews, however I felt that there were several points in which Masters really tried to make Nilson seem like a kind of tragic figure — a victim of his circumstances. Sure, he was a lonely man living a sad life, however that doesn’t even remotely excuse his actions. Masters seemed to have lost sight of the fact that he was speaking about a mass murderer at times, and this really rubbed me the wrong way.

If you’re looking for an incredibly thorough investigation into one man’s mind and heinous actions, you should absolutely give this book a try, however I’d warn against falling into the same trap as the author himself and finding the subject sympathetic. I’d highly recommend the audiobook, which is how I read it, as the narrator is absolutely fantastic! It is a totally compelling listen and I binged it in two sittings.

I’d be very curious to see how this translates to TV, as it has been recently adapted with David Tennant starring as Neilson.

If you’re unaware of Neilson’s crimes, content warnings for: murder, sexual assault, dismemberment, homophobia, and discussion about necrophilia.