simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)

The catwoman joins the party! Here we meet Keza, who is great, and whose village elders deserve a few slaps over the head, because wtf.

I admit I originally bought this because the second book has a cat-person on the cover, so I'm eager to get there.

This is the beginning of an epic heroic journey, with a group of three protagonists, two of whom are nonbinary. Horace is a ray of sunshine and definitely has wicked ADHD, Aliyah is meant to be a hero but they don't really know where they come from, and Rumi is a three-foot tall lizard and I love him.

Spectacular as always. A bit different from the other stories, as it's completely in present time without another story being told, but of course it's still about stories. Cleric Chih escorts a young woman to marry a much older man, and something is very wrong in the new husband's house. It's all mysterious and chilling and a bit uncomfortable, and then it's suddenly all flipped upside down.

Spectacular, funny, romantic and sexy story where the king falls in love with the royal groom and they find a new use or two for a riding crop. Perfect for a low-stress read, with uncomplicated plot and almost too convenient solutions for the usual conflicts.

Sophia and Mattias deserve their own book.

Adorable queer romance story at a cooking show. The female protagonist is absolute Sunshine type and the nonbinary protag starts crushing on her immediately and it's very cute. Transphobia is present throughout, since London has to deal with being publicly out as nonbinary in a TV show, but I liked that it's sort of hinted at instead of actually showing the offensive parts. You know it's there, but it can be read without being reminded of those awful comments at every turn.

Ended pretty abruptly, but the excerpt from the second book at the end was more exciting than the entire first book, so we'll see.

GIANT MAGIC CATS WITH TELEKINESIS AND TELEPATHY

I received an ARC through NetGalley, and this is my honest and voluntary review.

Body horror! Religious cults! Apocalypse! Trans bead lizards!

This is an absolutely horrifying story of queer rage, of being raised in a cult and being turned into a monster, while they can't even respect you as yourself. I liked that the characters were messy and not perfect - even Nicholas fucks up badly, there is a trans guy who is gatekeeps other trans people, etc. I also liked that the author made the resistance against the religious cult a LGBTQ+ alliance, which means all the main characters are queer.

It is not an easy read. It has a lot of religious trauma, manipulation, misgendering and so so much body horror and gore. A bit too much body horror and gore for me in the end, which is why I'm giving it 4 stars. But it's also about being loved even as a monster, and I think that's pretty cool.

Also, the trans bead lizard is the best.

Seth is going on my list of favorite vampires. I mean really, long-haired gay vampire who can turn into a cat? love him.