lilibetbombshell's Reviews (2.79k)

I knew I was going to love Evocation far before I read it. I have four editions of the book and before I read it over yesterday and today I hadn’t cracked the spine on any of them because I somehow knew I didn’t need to worry about whether or not I was going to like the book. It felt like a foregone conclusion. S. T. Gibson is one of my favorite authors, urban fantasy is totally my jam, and polyamorous romance is truly what I prefer when it comes to my romances because it’s who I am as a person. It’s what I best relate to. I’m so glad I didn’t second guess myself because if more special editions of this book come out I’d buy every one of them (and you can bet I’ll be snapping up the matching special editions of the sequels). 

 

Evocation is one of the best examples of 21st century urban fantasy I’ve read yet, and along with that comes a modern mindset and a more modern magic system than I’m used to reading. That’s not to say the magic system escaped me; rather, the magic system is so rooted in rituals, tools, and materials I’ve known of and read about for a lot of my life that it felt…strange to see them in a fantasy novel. Not off-putting, to be sure, just a little uncanny. I don’t know if it will make every reader feel the same way, but for me it made me feel closer to the story and the characters, because some of the magic in this book is accessible to anyone with the temerity, dedication, and willpower to throw themselves fully into the endeavor. For those who long for control and power, magic is a heady thing. 

 

The characters in this book are an absolute delight to read, both on their own and when they’re interacting with one another. Evocation is told in the first-person POV’s of the book’s three main characters: David, Rhys, and Moira. Each character is so well-developed, so distinct, and you end up caring for all three so much. Rhys and Moira’s marriage carries such a deep and abiding love you might wish someone loved you that much, David and Rhys’ burn white hot with both sexual tension and resentment, and David pairs with Moira like soulmates who both challenge and support each other. 

 

I can’t wait for the next book in the series, but this book on its own is a marvelous read. I loved the diversity, the intrigue, the plotting, the story, and I cried so much more than I expected to. There is so much going on in this book, but Gibson has an incredible way of writing it all so that you don’t realize how much story you’ve gone through and how much of the plot you’ve covered without breaking much of a sweat and it didn’t feel rushed at all. She just doesn’t allow filler or clutter to clog up the pacing and flow and it’s so refreshing. It’s a crisp, bright, sharp read and I loved it. 

 

File Under: 5 Star Review/Adult Fantasy/Book Series/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/LGBTQ Fantasy/Polyamorous Romance/Secret Society/Spice Level 1/Urban Fantasy 

 

TW/CWs: See the Goodreads page for this book because Gibson has posted this information as the top review on the page. 

 

Necrology has my favorite book cover of the year (and that’s not something I say lightly, because this year has been full of great covers) and one of my favorite summaries of the year too. We readers moan and groan a lot about the inaccuracies of book blurbs and how misleading they can sometimes be, but the blurb for Necrology gives you the exact information you need to know to read this book and still manages to not give away anything that might spoil the best bits of the book. 

 

There are two powerful themes that inform a lot of what this novel is about: one, that men are angered by and fear the fact that women were born with innate magic; and two, that the worst thing a woman can do is turn her back on other women. The former forms much of the bedrock for the story while the latter forms much of the framework for the plot. The story is told in dual third-person POVs: Rabbit and Whitetail. Rabbit is an eight-year-old orphan in Whitetail’s charge at the beginning of the book, before events in the book cause their paths to diverge. From that point we see the events of the book through their vastly different sets of eyes. 

 

Survival. Autonomy. Identity. Freedom. Both Rabbit and Whitetail are fighting for these things, but they have to fight for them in different ways and it provides for an interesting and heartbreaking compare and contrast in narrative. 

 

Look, it’s hard to review this book in some ways because a lot of it is atmosphere and vibes. I kind of feel how someone receives this book will be a really subjective experience dependent on their outlooks on femininity, motherhood, childhood, community versus individuality, sisterhood, war, and pain. It may go even deeper than that. Meg Ripley dug deep and touched on some of the most vulnerable aspects of being a woman, and that’s a large part of both the appeal and the horror of this book: by so bolding exposing where we’re soft, hard, light, dark, and dirty she’s also showing readers what kind of horrors have always (and continue to be) perpetrated against us for being female while also telling us the answer through this wonderful story about women and the dormant beasts within them. 

 

File Under: Dark Fantasy/Feminist Horror/Folk Horror/Literary Fiction/Occult Fiction 

He bought her because she was meant to be perfect in every particular, but even that wasn’t good enough for him. 

 

Annie Bot is a speculative fiction novel that’s a mix of lit fic and sci fi, but it definitely leans more lit fic. If you’re looking for a book that delves deep into the AI aspect of this story then I wouldn’t go looking here: Annie may be an AI robot, but this story focuses far more on the social and moral implications of individuals privately purchasing, owning, and using AI robots as they will than the more technological side of the industry. 

 

Annie Bot straddled the line between two of my favorite micro-genres: sad girl lit and weird girl lit. Annie may be a robot, but she’s remarkably human in many ways. Sometimes she acts more human than the actual humans in the story. Her owner, Doug, originally customized and purchased her to be a housekeeper and cook, but then had her programming switched to “Cuddle Bunny” mode, which essentially turned her into his girlfriend. At the same time, he had her switched to autodidatic mode, so she could teach herself things and evolve naturally over time. 

 

To Annie’s creators and Doug himself, he’s more than generous and a good owner. It’s only after an upsetting and confusing visit from Doug’s best friend that Annie begins to question her dynamic with Doug and look deeper into what her world could possibly be outside of their apartment. 

 

I don’t know about anyone else, but I spent a lot of this book wanting to rescue Annie and wishing I could push Doug into traffic. Annie is smart but naive. She’s a victim just like anyone who is trapped under the thumb of a partner they can’t escape, except she was literally born to please her owner. She’s known nothing else. This book is entertaining, a little weird, a lot sad, and has a satisfying ending. 

 

File Under: Literary Fiction/Sci Fi