Reading these out loud to the kids. The dragon obsession is real.

This book was a clever and unique approach to one of my favorite mystery tropes. The addition of the 4th wall breaking author letters was fantastic. I’m not sure I 100% get the very last page, but I think I do? Really enjoyed this one.

I admit that I am rarely drawn towards poetry offhand, but I always find it satisfying and moving, so I make sure to read at least a few collections each year. I listen to Beth May on the dungeons and daddies podcast and so I decided to give her collection a go. I went in knowing it wasn’t a comedic book and that this was a very different type of work from her. And it is - but it is also so good and absolutely colors her performance on the podcast as well. Her words flow lyrically but also feel so disjointed and surprising. This is an intensely personal collection of poems that moved me. After each one it seemed like I stopped, put the book down, and thought “Jesus fucking Christ she’s so good.”

Delighted to read a book that was not advertised as LGBTQA, but definitely celebrates having a bisexual character. As the blurb on the back of the book makes clear you’re still looking at a generally cis heterosexual relationship, but the fact that it was a non-issue that the man was bisexual, and had sexual history with other men, was just such a relief from other romance novels.

I’m not sure I felt too strongly about the characters or that they were developed quite enough for me to care strongly about them, but the world building was really creative and pretty good. I read it in two nights so I’ll probably read the next in the series.

Finished reading this to the kids tonight! Here are their review:

Eleanor age 7: Clay is a great hero and Starflight is very brave. Starflight learned that his friends care about him even if they thought he’d left on purpose. In the end he learned his friends believed in him. My favorite characters are Clay or Sunny.

Max age 10: My favorite part was the eruption and those chapters. Starflight learned he was braver than he thought. Whenever they talk about huge libraries in books it really makes me want to go to one. My favorite character in this book is Starflight, and I relate to him a little because I also like to read a lot and I might braver than I think.