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simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)
The Tea Dragon Society is a wonderful graphic novel with an adorable story, loveable characters, and some of the most beautiful art I've ever seen.
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am usually skeptical of books that get a lot of hype, especially books without queer characters. Based on the cover and the blurb, I also expected a cold, gritty, bloody tale of warriors and betrayal.
(Note: There are minor plot spoilers in this review, but honestly, the blurb already gives away a lot of things that happen quite late, so you won’t find anything major that’s not already in the blurb.)
Don’t get me wrong – I got all of that. There is cold and ice, there are betrayals, and there certainly are warriors. Finding out that her brother has been alive and living with the enemy all this time, and forced to live among the enemy for the winter, Eelyn is full of anger and betrayal and doubt.
And yet, there is so much gentleness in this book.
Read the full review on my blog.
I am usually skeptical of books that get a lot of hype, especially books without queer characters. Based on the cover and the blurb, I also expected a cold, gritty, bloody tale of warriors and betrayal.
(Note: There are minor plot spoilers in this review, but honestly, the blurb already gives away a lot of things that happen quite late, so you won’t find anything major that’s not already in the blurb.)
Don’t get me wrong – I got all of that. There is cold and ice, there are betrayals, and there certainly are warriors. Finding out that her brother has been alive and living with the enemy all this time, and forced to live among the enemy for the winter, Eelyn is full of anger and betrayal and doubt.
And yet, there is so much gentleness in this book.
Read the full review on my blog.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
It was very fitting to name this anthology Sunvault, because it was truly a vault of little treasures. A collection of short stories, poems, and even drawings about the sun, plants, water, and different methods to live in peace with our planet. In them, you can find dozens of creative inventions, from solar-powered giraffes to green children. You can find activists who risk their lives and freedom for others, and people who are just trying to live in this world. You can also find the characteristics and people of many different cultures.
There were almost 40 pieces of stories, poems or drawings in this anthology. Some of them were more difficult to read, with science or cultural references that I didn’t quite understand. But there were also stories that made me cry, and stories that made me scared, or hopeful for our future – or all of the above.
First, the anthology opens with a Foreword: On the Origins of Solarpunk, as well as an editor’s note, which was pretty useful, given that (other than a few very short pieces of writing) this anthology was my first “longer” introduction to solarpunk.
It would take forever to review every single story, so I’m going to talk about some of my favourites.
Full review on my blog.
It was very fitting to name this anthology Sunvault, because it was truly a vault of little treasures. A collection of short stories, poems, and even drawings about the sun, plants, water, and different methods to live in peace with our planet. In them, you can find dozens of creative inventions, from solar-powered giraffes to green children. You can find activists who risk their lives and freedom for others, and people who are just trying to live in this world. You can also find the characteristics and people of many different cultures.
There were almost 40 pieces of stories, poems or drawings in this anthology. Some of them were more difficult to read, with science or cultural references that I didn’t quite understand. But there were also stories that made me cry, and stories that made me scared, or hopeful for our future – or all of the above.
First, the anthology opens with a Foreword: On the Origins of Solarpunk, as well as an editor’s note, which was pretty useful, given that (other than a few very short pieces of writing) this anthology was my first “longer” introduction to solarpunk.
It would take forever to review every single story, so I’m going to talk about some of my favourites.
Full review on my blog.
This book was April 2018's Sapphic Book Club read hosted by @sapphicliterature.
‘Hey baby, did it hurt when The Light carved you from stardust and burned wings of bone onto your back?’
*vague hand gestures*
So, we have Iofiel, an angel who joins a course meant for demons to help a friend, and thus ends up kinda stuck between the two sides that are meant to be enemies. We also have a shitton of angel lore, including sexuality and gender.
All angels are originally meant to be "triple A" -- asexual, aromantic and agender. Most of them seem to have a binary gender (although there were several nonbinary side characters, but none of them were super relevant) and that's all fine, but if they happen to be alloromantic and/or -sexual, then we have a problem, because that's a sin.
I originally found the concept of aroace being the default really interesting, even if it's only in the case of angels, but honestly, I was really uncomfortable with the way sexuality, romantic attraction, kissing, etc were all presented as sins to be avoided. I also feel like that a lot of the conversations/explaining about romance/gender/sexuality kept going in circles, and it was more frustrating to read than enlightening.
Regardless of this, I was fond of Iofiel and her little group - Archie and Maalik were both great, and Santiago and Damien were even more great. I also really, really loved a minor character, Lupe, and I enjoyed the portrayal of Lucifer as well.
That being said, something about the main plot (Apocalypse and all) really didn't work for me, and I kinda lost interest/track of what was happening towards the last 30%.
Kudos to the worldbuilding because I could see there was a lot of thought to it, but yeah, sometimes it was overwhelming or repetitive.
tldr; This was an okay book and I was fond of the characters, but I'm kind of "meh" on the way sexual and romantic orientation is treated, and I wasn't really into the main plot.
Representation:
- Iofiel is asexual, and maybe aromantic? she starts out with aroace being a default but then questions
- I think Archie is ace and/or aro as well, because he talks about not having interest in sex or understanding romance
- there are some minor nonbinary characters using they/them but I think only one of them really speaks more than once. that being said, all angels are /meant/ to be agender originally, so it's possibly more of them are nonbinary and just use different pronouns? Iofiel states she is a girl, though
- there is a recurring f/f side pairing that is relatively important
‘Hey baby, did it hurt when The Light carved you from stardust and burned wings of bone onto your back?’
*vague hand gestures*
So, we have Iofiel, an angel who joins a course meant for demons to help a friend, and thus ends up kinda stuck between the two sides that are meant to be enemies. We also have a shitton of angel lore, including sexuality and gender.
All angels are originally meant to be "triple A" -- asexual, aromantic and agender. Most of them seem to have a binary gender (although there were several nonbinary side characters, but none of them were super relevant) and that's all fine, but if they happen to be alloromantic and/or -sexual, then we have a problem, because that's a sin.
I originally found the concept of aroace being the default really interesting, even if it's only in the case of angels, but honestly, I was really uncomfortable with the way sexuality, romantic attraction, kissing, etc were all presented as sins to be avoided. I also feel like that a lot of the conversations/explaining about romance/gender/sexuality kept going in circles, and it was more frustrating to read than enlightening.
Regardless of this, I was fond of Iofiel and her little group - Archie and Maalik were both great, and Santiago and Damien were even more great. I also really, really loved a minor character, Lupe, and I enjoyed the portrayal of Lucifer as well.
That being said, something about the main plot (Apocalypse and all) really didn't work for me, and I kinda lost interest/track of what was happening towards the last 30%.
Kudos to the worldbuilding because I could see there was a lot of thought to it, but yeah, sometimes it was overwhelming or repetitive.
tldr; This was an okay book and I was fond of the characters, but I'm kind of "meh" on the way sexual and romantic orientation is treated, and I wasn't really into the main plot.
Representation:
- Iofiel is asexual, and maybe aromantic? she starts out with aroace being a default but then questions
- I think Archie is ace and/or aro as well, because he talks about not having interest in sex or understanding romance
- there are some minor nonbinary characters using they/them but I think only one of them really speaks more than once. that being said, all angels are /meant/ to be agender originally, so it's possibly more of them are nonbinary and just use different pronouns? Iofiel states she is a girl, though
- there is a recurring f/f side pairing that is relatively important
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Sex on page: Yes
Overall, I enjoyed this collection more than I expected given some of my previous experience with contemporary adult romances.
Lead Counsel by Aurora Rey: 3/5 stars
For Your Eyes Only by Julie Cannon: 4.5/5 stars
Opportunity of a Lifetime by M. Ullrich: 4/5 stars
Read my full review on my blog, The Golden Library.
Sex on page: Yes
Overall, I enjoyed this collection more than I expected given some of my previous experience with contemporary adult romances.
Lead Counsel by Aurora Rey: 3/5 stars
For Your Eyes Only by Julie Cannon: 4.5/5 stars
Opportunity of a Lifetime by M. Ullrich: 4/5 stars
Read my full review on my blog, The Golden Library.
Not So Stories
Nikesh Shukla, Achala Upendran, Woodrow Phoenix, David Thomas Moore, Zedeck Siew, Wayne Santos, Paul Krueger, Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Tauriq Moosa, Zina Hutton, Cassandra Khaw, Ali Nouraei, Adiwijaya Iskandar, Raymond Gates, Stewart Hotston, Jeannette Ng, Joseph Watson, Georgina Kamsika
Read on my blog.
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
“Because every day of freedom is a small act of victory against those who would rob you of it.”
Not So Stories is a response to [b:Just So Stories|34053|Just So Stories|Rudyard Kipling|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389064718s/34053.jpg|2475078] by Rudyard Kipling that I confess I have never read, but according to the blurb, it’s a book rooted in British colonialism. Even without knowing this information, it is clear that the stories in Not So Stories are all against the different aspects of colonialism, explotiation and racism. While I sometimes felt like I lacked context for the stories, I still enjoyed reading them.
I’m not going to write an individual review for every story, but I’m going to list my favourites from the collection:
🐈 queen by joseph e. cole (this is the one the quote I started with is from)
🐈 best beloved by wayne santos
🐈 saṃsāra by georgina kamsika
🐈 the cat who walked by herself by achala upendran
🐈 how the simurgh won her tail by ali nouraei
🐈 how the camel got her paid time off by paul krueger
My rating: 🐪🐪🐪🐪/5.
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
“Because every day of freedom is a small act of victory against those who would rob you of it.”
Not So Stories is a response to [b:Just So Stories|34053|Just So Stories|Rudyard Kipling|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389064718s/34053.jpg|2475078] by Rudyard Kipling that I confess I have never read, but according to the blurb, it’s a book rooted in British colonialism. Even without knowing this information, it is clear that the stories in Not So Stories are all against the different aspects of colonialism, explotiation and racism. While I sometimes felt like I lacked context for the stories, I still enjoyed reading them.
I’m not going to write an individual review for every story, but I’m going to list my favourites from the collection:
🐈 queen by joseph e. cole (this is the one the quote I started with is from)
🐈 best beloved by wayne santos
🐈 saṃsāra by georgina kamsika
🐈 the cat who walked by herself by achala upendran
🐈 how the simurgh won her tail by ali nouraei
🐈 how the camel got her paid time off by paul krueger
My rating: 🐪🐪🐪🐪/5.
Read on my blog.
LGBTQAI+: None
Sex on page: No
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When I started reading this book, my first thought was that it would fit perfectly in The Radical Element anthology that I read recently. It’s a historical fiction with a 18-year-old female protagonist who is truly radical and defies convention by performing tricks on the wings of moving airplanes in the 1920s.
After I read the book, I would like to say that I probably would have enjoyed it more if it truly had been a short story/novella in an anthology instead of a full-length book. This way, I often felt like it dragged on, or the exact same type of conflicts and scenes kept repeating (some practice, someone trying to convince Grace not to fly, Rowland showing up…). While it was overall a good story, I feel like it would have worked better if it was half as long.
Another problem for me was the characters. Other than Grace and MAYBE Henry, I couldn’t really get connected to anyone. Grace’s two female friends were nice, but they didn’t appear that much. The Uncle, Daniel and Nathan were interesting as Grace’s family, but – especially the last two – barely felt like individual people to me (up until a certain spoiler-y event).
It was clever how the book kept hinting at one character being a traitor when it was really another one, so it gets a few points for not being predictable, but the eventual reveal just made me less enthusiastic about both of these characters when I already wasn’t too attached to either.
Overall, I think this book had a great setting but unfortunately I didn’t find it very enjoyable to read.
My rating: 🛩🛩🛩/5.
LGBTQAI+: None
Sex on page: No
I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When I started reading this book, my first thought was that it would fit perfectly in The Radical Element anthology that I read recently. It’s a historical fiction with a 18-year-old female protagonist who is truly radical and defies convention by performing tricks on the wings of moving airplanes in the 1920s.
After I read the book, I would like to say that I probably would have enjoyed it more if it truly had been a short story/novella in an anthology instead of a full-length book. This way, I often felt like it dragged on, or the exact same type of conflicts and scenes kept repeating (some practice, someone trying to convince Grace not to fly, Rowland showing up…). While it was overall a good story, I feel like it would have worked better if it was half as long.
Another problem for me was the characters. Other than Grace and MAYBE Henry, I couldn’t really get connected to anyone. Grace’s two female friends were nice, but they didn’t appear that much. The Uncle, Daniel and Nathan were interesting as Grace’s family, but – especially the last two – barely felt like individual people to me (up until a certain spoiler-y event).
It was clever how the book kept hinting at one character being a traitor when it was really another one, so it gets a few points for not being predictable, but the eventual reveal just made me less enthusiastic about both of these characters when I already wasn’t too attached to either.
Overall, I think this book had a great setting but unfortunately I didn’t find it very enjoyable to read.
My rating: 🛩🛩🛩/5.
I was warned that this had a lot of violence in it but I was not really prepared for all the different types and appearences of violence. It was a difficult read, but there were still many beautiful, heartwarming moments. All the Star Wars geekery was wonderful.
tws: violence against trans people, suicide attempt of the main character, rape mention, storyline about outing, slurs, misgendering, suicide of side character, and I probably missed a bunch of things
rep: trans girl main character, one bi and one lesbian (?) side character, minor trans side characters, trans woman author
tws: violence against trans people, suicide attempt of the main character, rape mention, storyline about outing, slurs, misgendering, suicide of side character, and I probably missed a bunch of things
rep: trans girl main character, one bi and one lesbian (?) side character, minor trans side characters, trans woman author
LGBTQAI+: There is a side m/m relationship and a couple of minor mlm characters.
A lot happened in these 500 pages. I picked it up for nostalgia reasons because it seemed kind of like a "stereotypical" paranormal YA novel with the MC who has special powers, is surrounded by all kinds of supernaturals, but nobody knows what she is.
I actually ended up enjoying (most of) the book more than I expected. I was interested in what was happening with Ember, and I liked the supporting characters, especially Kai (reaper, Ember's cousin) and Quinn (human in a witch family). I also liked Tristin, despite her being an "unlikeable" female character for many. I liked that the werewolf pack in the book also welcomed humans and reapers as family.
But there were also many things I didn't like. For one, there were several minor female characters who seemed to just be there to be mean bullies. I know all bullies are messed up, but the things Stella did still seemed like huge overkill to me. I felt like this was a huge waste of female characters.
I was also lowkey comfortable with the way Kai and Rhys's relationship, and by extension the other minor mlm characters were treated. I can't really explain what my problem was, but their romance was mostly just frustrating to read, and I didn't like that the only other queer characters (Eric and Tate) seemed to be there as props to make Rhys jealous, with a complete lack of queer girls in the entire book.
And then there's Mace. Thing is: I LOVE immortal, morally grey, asshole characters. I liked Mace. But that doesn't mean I wanted him to get together with 17-year-old Ember. I realise this is paranormal YA, but if there's one thing I've seen to have grown out of, it's the "lying, murderous, stalker immortal boyfriend" trope. Fortunately, Mace has some character development by the end of the book, but their romance still didn't grab me at all.
I liked most of the plot, the twists, and the way all the puzzle pieces came together - but I felt like everything went downhill around 70% in. After a certain event happened, nothing really made sense to me. It felt messy, rushed, unnecessary, or a combination of those three.
That being said! There were a couple platonic "I love you"s that I loved. Wish there had been more.
tldr; I really enjoyed around the first 70% of this book, but not the last 30%. The main group of characters are great, though I have some issues with the really minor ones. Also, pretty much none of the main romances grabbed me.
This quote from Tristin about Mace was the best: "Tristin supposed one might think he was good looking if you were into the fallen angel thing and assuming you could overlook the soul slurping evil demon part."
A lot happened in these 500 pages. I picked it up for nostalgia reasons because it seemed kind of like a "stereotypical" paranormal YA novel with the MC who has special powers, is surrounded by all kinds of supernaturals, but nobody knows what she is.
I actually ended up enjoying (most of) the book more than I expected. I was interested in what was happening with Ember, and I liked the supporting characters, especially Kai (reaper, Ember's cousin) and Quinn (human in a witch family). I also liked Tristin, despite her being an "unlikeable" female character for many. I liked that the werewolf pack in the book also welcomed humans and reapers as family.
But there were also many things I didn't like. For one, there were several minor female characters who seemed to just be there to be mean bullies. I know all bullies are messed up, but the things Stella did still seemed like huge overkill to me. I felt like this was a huge waste of female characters.
I was also lowkey comfortable with the way Kai and Rhys's relationship, and by extension the other minor mlm characters were treated. I can't really explain what my problem was, but their romance was mostly just frustrating to read, and I didn't like that the only other queer characters (Eric and Tate) seemed to be there as props to make Rhys jealous, with a complete lack of queer girls in the entire book.
And then there's Mace. Thing is: I LOVE immortal, morally grey, asshole characters. I liked Mace. But that doesn't mean I wanted him to get together with 17-year-old Ember. I realise this is paranormal YA, but if there's one thing I've seen to have grown out of, it's the "lying, murderous, stalker immortal boyfriend" trope. Fortunately, Mace has some character development by the end of the book, but their romance still didn't grab me at all.
I liked most of the plot, the twists, and the way all the puzzle pieces came together - but I felt like everything went downhill around 70% in. After a certain event happened, nothing really made sense to me. It felt messy, rushed, unnecessary, or a combination of those three.
That being said! There were a couple platonic "I love you"s that I loved. Wish there had been more.
tldr; I really enjoyed around the first 70% of this book, but not the last 30%. The main group of characters are great, though I have some issues with the really minor ones. Also, pretty much none of the main romances grabbed me.
This quote from Tristin about Mace was the best: "Tristin supposed one might think he was good looking if you were into the fallen angel thing and assuming you could overlook the soul slurping evil demon part."