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rainbowbrarian's Reviews (1.85k)
This was the November pick for Reading Rainbow Queer Book Club @doverpubliclibrary. We wanted to choose an indigenous author to read and discuss during November. Darcie Little Badger is an asexual Lipan Apache author and this was her debut novel.
It was excellent! Ellie, short for Elatsoe, named after her sixth great grandmother, can raise the spirits of the dead. When she has a nightmare where her cousin’s spirit reaches out to her asking her to investigate his murder, she knows that she needs to act. Along with her friend Jay and the support of her family she sets out to find out how her cousin died and how to get justice for his murder.
I loved the parent child relationship shown in Elatsoe. So many times with a YA book it’s the teens trying to get around adults that ignore or dismiss their concerns. Ellie’s parents listen to her. They have mature discussions with her about her dreams and they respect her knowledge and lived experiences. They don’t just let her travel across the country to face some unknown villain, instead they all travel together and try to manage this situation together.
The mystery is excellent, and without giving away the plot, I was very satisfied with how it was handled. Ellie’s near constant companion is her dog, Kirby. Kirby passed away some time before the start of the story, but his spirit is with her and is a fearsome and loving ally and friend to her.
Read this for a great indigenous ghost story, mystery, with some fantastic friendships, ace representation, and healthy family conflict management. Also just read it because it’s GOOD.
It was excellent! Ellie, short for Elatsoe, named after her sixth great grandmother, can raise the spirits of the dead. When she has a nightmare where her cousin’s spirit reaches out to her asking her to investigate his murder, she knows that she needs to act. Along with her friend Jay and the support of her family she sets out to find out how her cousin died and how to get justice for his murder.
I loved the parent child relationship shown in Elatsoe. So many times with a YA book it’s the teens trying to get around adults that ignore or dismiss their concerns. Ellie’s parents listen to her. They have mature discussions with her about her dreams and they respect her knowledge and lived experiences. They don’t just let her travel across the country to face some unknown villain, instead they all travel together and try to manage this situation together.
The mystery is excellent, and without giving away the plot, I was very satisfied with how it was handled. Ellie’s near constant companion is her dog, Kirby. Kirby passed away some time before the start of the story, but his spirit is with her and is a fearsome and loving ally and friend to her.
Read this for a great indigenous ghost story, mystery, with some fantastic friendships, ace representation, and healthy family conflict management. Also just read it because it’s GOOD.
I pre-ordered the library’s copy of this book. And that meant I could be first on the holdlist. Lucky Lucky Me. I literally clasped it to my chest when I saw the hold come in. I was a little worried because Legends and Lattes was so good. Was this going to be able to stand up to that one?
Spoilers: Yes. I liked it just as much. It was such a delight to get to meet young and impetuous and foolhardy Viv. And so cool to meet Gallina too! This prequel/sequel story is full of delightful characters, from the kindly inkeeper to the grumpy doctor to the sexy baker (why is that trope SO APPEALLING... I might have a think for sexy big hearted bakers XD ), to the in over her head local bookshop owner just trying to live up to her imagined father’s expectations.
I loved seeing Viv fall in love with books while she’s forced to take things slow while recuperating from a serious injury. Fern is this book’s ratling and she is so different from Thimble and I love both of them all the more for that. Read this book if you love DnD, interludes in big fantasy stories, cozy vibes, tea and scones, bookshops, found family, and characters relearning what they are capable of when they are forced to reevaluate things.
Highlights: indie author bookshop visits, meeting Satchel, rivals to grudging allies to maybe friends with Viv and Iridia (local guard captain), flirty mc flirty baker <3, and the creation of a cozy local bookshop.
Spoilers: Yes. I liked it just as much. It was such a delight to get to meet young and impetuous and foolhardy Viv. And so cool to meet Gallina too! This prequel/sequel story is full of delightful characters, from the kindly inkeeper to the grumpy doctor to the sexy baker (why is that trope SO APPEALLING... I might have a think for sexy big hearted bakers XD ), to the in over her head local bookshop owner just trying to live up to her imagined father’s expectations.
I loved seeing Viv fall in love with books while she’s forced to take things slow while recuperating from a serious injury. Fern is this book’s ratling and she is so different from Thimble and I love both of them all the more for that. Read this book if you love DnD, interludes in big fantasy stories, cozy vibes, tea and scones, bookshops, found family, and characters relearning what they are capable of when they are forced to reevaluate things.
Highlights: indie author bookshop visits, meeting Satchel, rivals to grudging allies to maybe friends with Viv and Iridia (local guard captain), flirty mc flirty baker <3, and the creation of a cozy local bookshop.
Queer Black Author - Hugo Award Winner - I picked this book for our library as part of our effort to focus on under-represented authors in our collection.
Things I liked in this novella - the word based magic system was really interesting, not something I’d seen done a lot before, magical disappearing tattoos, interesting and horrifying take on demonic possession, and overthrow of toxic corporations.
This novella took on a huge task of building an entire complex fantasy world and political system in a very short space. I applaud it for the ideas that clearly went into it, but it was a little too much to fit into such a compressed space. This story was more suited for a novel length book, I was left struggling a lot to remember a lot of unfamiliar places and names of different factions and actors. I really wanted to know more about the magic system and the little pieces we got of characters backgrounds felt a little bit rushed and under developed.
The whole idea of demonic possession to create a super soldier was really original. I don’t think I’ve read that anywhere and it was so well done! I saw on the author’s website that this might just be the first of a novella series and I am interested enough to read the next one.
Read this if: you loved “This is How You Lose the Time War” and want to see a queer black male take on it, love political sci fi thrillers and don’t mind some not quite baked world building, Love Enemies to Rivals to Lovers, like a “I’ve been lied to my whole life and now it’s time to make it right” moment.
Things I liked in this novella - the word based magic system was really interesting, not something I’d seen done a lot before, magical disappearing tattoos, interesting and horrifying take on demonic possession, and overthrow of toxic corporations.
This novella took on a huge task of building an entire complex fantasy world and political system in a very short space. I applaud it for the ideas that clearly went into it, but it was a little too much to fit into such a compressed space. This story was more suited for a novel length book, I was left struggling a lot to remember a lot of unfamiliar places and names of different factions and actors. I really wanted to know more about the magic system and the little pieces we got of characters backgrounds felt a little bit rushed and under developed.
The whole idea of demonic possession to create a super soldier was really original. I don’t think I’ve read that anywhere and it was so well done! I saw on the author’s website that this might just be the first of a novella series and I am interested enough to read the next one.
Read this if: you loved “This is How You Lose the Time War” and want to see a queer black male take on it, love political sci fi thrillers and don’t mind some not quite baked world building, Love Enemies to Rivals to Lovers, like a “I’ve been lied to my whole life and now it’s time to make it right” moment.
If you’ve followed me for any length of the time you already know how much I love Murderbot (a hugely insanely big amount). So the fact that I thought System Collapse was SO INCREDIBLY GOOD, will be a surprise to no one. So here goes ;)
System Collapse takes place immediately following Network Effect. I am a little bit confused as to why Fugitive Telemetry is book 6, feels like it should have been 5 and then Network Effect as 6. If we’re going chronologically. But that’s a minor issue and unrelated to this book.
For the beginning part of this book Murderbot keeps making a reference to an event that we, as readers only see as REDACTED. Example: “ART was monitoring me closely because of [redacted].” And it made me lean in and try to read faster because I needed to know what the [redacted] was! This book played a lot with the conflict in Murderbot between what it perceives as it’s inferior organic parts and the machine parts. I just want to give Murderbot a HUGE hug (which I would never do because it does not like physical contact). Murderbot is working through it’s trauma in such a Murderbot way (by refusing to admit that it exists or that it should have any impact on it’s functioning - way too relatable. TT;;; )
Read this if: you LOVE ART and Murderbot’s relationship, want to see what Murderbot does when it feels compromised, want to meet the person who could turn Ratthi’s head, need more Iris rolling her eyes at ART and Murderbot.
Seriously, I feel like I will love anything and everything Murderbot forever. You should all read these ;)
System Collapse takes place immediately following Network Effect. I am a little bit confused as to why Fugitive Telemetry is book 6, feels like it should have been 5 and then Network Effect as 6. If we’re going chronologically. But that’s a minor issue and unrelated to this book.
For the beginning part of this book Murderbot keeps making a reference to an event that we, as readers only see as REDACTED. Example: “ART was monitoring me closely because of [redacted].” And it made me lean in and try to read faster because I needed to know what the [redacted] was! This book played a lot with the conflict in Murderbot between what it perceives as it’s inferior organic parts and the machine parts. I just want to give Murderbot a HUGE hug (which I would never do because it does not like physical contact). Murderbot is working through it’s trauma in such a Murderbot way (by refusing to admit that it exists or that it should have any impact on it’s functioning - way too relatable. TT;;; )
Read this if: you LOVE ART and Murderbot’s relationship, want to see what Murderbot does when it feels compromised, want to meet the person who could turn Ratthi’s head, need more Iris rolling her eyes at ART and Murderbot.
Seriously, I feel like I will love anything and everything Murderbot forever. You should all read these ;)
