Did you know that there exists an ersatz, modernized mashup of Frankenstein and The Count of Monte Cristo? Neither did I, until reading Schwab's Vicious.
Granted, you start a book with a character named Victor in a graveyard and you evoke certain...expectations in your reader. What impressed me about Vicious was that Schwab did not retell Frankenstein. She drew on it and paid homage to it, but the narrative has far more in common with Dumas than Shelley. (And it borrowed its pacing from the contemporary thriller, which is a relief because, well, Dumas is not known for his brevity.)
In the end, I think her willingness to tell a very strange story with all sorts of literary antecedents mixed together into a fast-paced revenge novel, rather than try to recreate a modern version of one story, made for an excellent read.

This book just didn't work for me. It wasn't bad and, I'll admit, a good 60% of the problem is my feeling about the Bluebeard story, which is a fairy tale I really don't like. I was just surprised recently by a Bluebeard story I loved and I think that threw me. [Book: Seventh Bride] by Ursula Vernon, for those of you playing along at home.
This one wasn't terrible - the Bluebeard character is pretty terrible from the get go and the rate at which the main character drew away from him was reasonable. My biggest pet peeve with her was one that comes up a LOT in YA, first person narratives: the narrator's self-awareness does not match the narrative's awareness. The way she describes herself and her behavior did not match up with her internal monologue; the latter lacked an awareness of her feelings and surroundings that was painfully obvious when she was narrating her actions. And it frustrated me.
Also, the book kinda falls into the trope of giving the good characters 21st century liberal morals. Set in 1855 Mississippi, it absolutely makes sense to have the character from Boston be against slavery. But, by the end, some of her responses were a bit...historically unbelievable and played into some of the "white people save the blacks!" stereotypes. The book, overall, did pretty well, but there were moments where the historical narrative could have used more nuance. The slavery sections predominantly furthered the white girl's fairytale and that was disturbing.
Also, it's hard to believe in a happily ever after in 1855, given any knowledge of US history.

Fortunately, this book was more in line with the second book in the series than the first. I definitely enjoyed it. LaFevers extensive use of history is awesome, her mythological evolution of the "old gods" of Brittany is really cool and, once again, I liked both the main character and her love interest (rather than wanting to punch one or both of them--see my problems with book 1 in this series).
There were two plot twists and one was extremely obvious to the point that I was practically yelling at the main character (although the book does a perfectly good job of making it clear why the reader would see this one coming, but the characters wouldn't). The other one I missed completely, so well done book for catching me there.
A YA series worth reading, especially if you like seeing people do new things even within the historical European framework.

I can't believe it took me so long to read more or Nnedi Okorafor. I think I was a bit worried to branch beyond her middle grade books because her writing can absolutely range into the realm of dark. Which it does. But it's brilliant anyway.
This is such a hard book to describe, but I will say that Okorafor's ability to sketch out a world entirely through the characters who populate it is amazing. I want more spec fic like this, even if I need a bit of a break to read something a bit more cheerful
Fortunately, the prequel to this book just came out...

Right, so the front of the book advertised this as a version of Beauty and the Beast, which is always a good way to catch my eye. The back explained that it was a Jane Eyre story. Of course I jumped at the opportunity even though most books fail to capture what I love about either of those narratives.
This one, however, was good! I realize I sound surprised, but it was. It didn't feel the need to match every beat of the Jane Eyre story (and had some amusing references to the original). An homage rather than a straight retelling. And the narrative itself--with all the strange fey magic and world after war--was intriguing and made me want more, which is not usually the case with a romance retelling.
I don't remember if this was officially YA, but it felt like it and was definitely an enjoyable story.

Oh, look. A series. I wonder if the next book is going to be an homage to Wuthering Heights, since this one is riffing on Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Which is way more subtle than basing the first one on Jane Eyre and not just because fewer people have read Anne than Charlotte.
It suffered a bit from not quite living up to the first book. Some of the plotting felt a bit less tight and Connolly has her characters in danger for pretty much the entire story, which means that the moments of actual tension are...less tense.
On the other hand, it had some amazing scenes in it and the continued use development of the Edwardian-era world was very cool. Definitely enjoyed this book.

Continuing my read through last year's Campbell award, I've been reading much more intriguing sf set in contemporary times. Chu's novel was decidedly fun, albeit a bit outside of my usual tastes. The concept at the heart of the novel intrigued me. The execution/plot felt a bit formulaic, although it worked overall. In one sense, the plot works against the characters—I want to get to know the Prophus and humans, but the way they blend makes both feel elusive.
Still, this was a solid novel and, fortunately, the sequel is available in thus years Hugo packet. So I'll be there next.

One of these days, I'm going to actually read Elliott's massive epics. They look really good, but I haven't been in the mood for the massive cast of characters with twenty bajillion viewpoints in a while.
Reading her short stories are a serious sell for her longer books and she really has a knack for telling a full story in the constrained space of the short story. I really enjoyed them!

Given the first book in the series, I really wanted to like this one more. And there were so many excellent details, so many little things to like about it.
But the plot felt like this baggy monster that entirely got away from Hartman, who was determined to write a duology and so she had to cover EVERYTHING by the end of the book. It felt messy and Hartman's focus on finishing the story meant that there were a lot of moments between characters or with new people that just felt like they could have been given more time or a chance to develop better on the screen. Either fewer things needed to happen or Hartman needed to write it over more books or...something. The book was fine, but Serafina was so good that fine feels like such a letdown.

This series has now reached "buy as soon as its out" status for me and, fortunately, the third book does not disappoint. I'm not sure if this was actually a better book than The Shadow Throne (which was also amazing!) or that the weight of a consistently awesome series behind it makes the book feel even better. Consistently being excellent is quite a feat when it comes to extended series.
And this series is everything I wished Game of Thrones was. Its got all the stuff I enjoyed from GoT, such as the secondary world narrative based on historical events, but jettisons all the stuff I didn't. Wexler keeps a tight focus on his viewpoint characters, limiting our perspectives to three main people (which means you can actually build a connection to the characters and people around them) and does a much better job at writing good people in bad situations than Martin ever did. Not to mention that Wexler clearly has much more respect for his female characters and provides all of them with the agency appropriate to their situation.
That's probably why the book is so successful for me - for a giant epic about battles and winning empires, this book always manages to keep the story grounded in the people and it's beautiful.
(Also, I can't believe that I'm STILL going back and forth about that one character whose motivations are inscrutable. I keep making up my mind and having the rug pulled out from under me. It's been three books! Seriously, how do you do that?)