I didn't realize this was a sequel because Trussoni did a fantastic job of bringing the reader up to date. There was a lot of references to Japanese culture which I enjoyed. I also found the writing style to be upbeat and interesting. There was some infodumping and the middle felt very drawn out compared to the ending. I'm also not sure if I liked the reveal of the Big Bad, but it was a fun quick read overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Repeater Books for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This was an extremely interesting compilation of histories. I loved how the architectural horrors were a front for the connection between horror and the American Dream, the necessity of feminism and race and the exclusion of Black Americans from the horror genre. I came out of Sick Houses with a solid list of horror movies to watch. I love that Taylor avoided the True Crime aspect of the houses she talked about and rather connected them as reflections to real societal issues. If you usually dislike nonfiction but enjoy essays, I definitely recommend Sick Houses because the tone throughout was personal, enlightening but without a bombardment of unnecessary information

I understand why this is well loved and renowned but I just couldn't bring myself to care. It was very white feminism, "what if what happened in the past to Black and Indigenous women actually happened to white women." I also think it was weird that the only reference to Black women or Black people in general was to say they got shipped off somewhere. Nothing in this narrative was groundbreaking or even original. I think Atwood's understanding of American Evangelicalism was limited and there was too little background given for the reader to have the appropriate suspension of belief.

This is another irrevocably life changing work of prose. There are so many themes to talk about, grief, love, sobriety and addiction, martyrdom, depression, it’s so difficult to know where to start. I will have to reread this because I know I missed pieces and ideas.

The prose read like poetry and I’m glad I had a physical copy to annotate. I liked all the POVs, I loved that it jumped between time periods and characters but ultimately came back to Cyrus. This is so philosophical and emotional, I had to take breaks and feel what was written. I loved that the plot was broken up with pieces of Cyrus’ writing, communications from the US and Iran, definitions, dreams and more. It was really ambitious for a book with less than 350 pages but it came together beautifully. I loved the conversations between Orkideh and Cyrus and while the twist was heavily foreshadowed in the chapters before the reveal, the reveal was still heavily impactful. 

I found myself heavily relating to Roya and Cyrus. The idea that wanting to die and not wanting to live anymore are to separate things, the former being an action and the latter being a passive way of being corresponds to conversations I had with my therapist for years. I also heavily relate to Cyrus’ obsession with being good and martyrdom and what those things mean and what they do, because who really wants to die and have their life be meaningless.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I was lucky to get this ARC only like a month after finishing How to Solve Your Own Murder. I still love the alternating between Annie and Aunt Francis’ POVs. I think it helps the reader see the similarities between the two beyond just what Annie notices/fears are their similarities. I liked the continuation of Francis’ story with Peony Lane making an appearance again. I think Perrin did a good job of following up How To Solve Your Own Murder, and How To Seal Your Own Fate kept me guessing just like the first. The sequel also has a lot of the charm that the first does.

I do wish we saw more of a character with Annie, Jenny, Rowan or any of the characters really. I also had times where I really loved the dialogue and times where it felt like Perrin forgot how people interact, e.g. Rowan and Annie’s convos. There were times where Annie seemed uncharacteristically rude to Rowan even when he was doing her favors and they had worked together previously.

Now, the ending did not make much sense as the first’s did. I felt like it was very convoluted and there were a lot of strings to follow to come to the conclusion. I had to go back and reread parts because it didn’t make much sense. But, overall, it was a solid sequel and a solid murder mystery.

I truly cannot believe this is a debut novel. Forewarning, this book is uncomfortable, it is painful, it is heartbreaking. Please check the trigger warnings before reading. I truly do not believe that I am the same person I was before reading this. At its core, it’s a love story, the love that Samuel and Isaiah share is entwined in almost every piece of it. The Prophets, however, is not a romanticized slave story, it’s brutal and raw. 

The multiple POV’s gave each character so much depth, even the white slavers. Timothy thought he was more progressive than his parents, even as he raped Samuel and Isaiah. Paul and Ruth are entitled and truly believe that God willed them to own slaves, we even see Paul tackle the idea that slaves have souls, then uses the Bible to justify his actions again. Maggie was my absolute favorite character. She was so complex and vengeful and I cheered for her quiet acts of resistance even as Paul and Ruth sought to embarrass her. 

Jones’ prose is rich and provoking and I saved dozens and dozens of quotes. I loved how the stories intertwined, from before the time of slaves, before Samuel and Isaiah, and the time of Samuel and Isaiah. I loved the biblical themes mixed with Maggie’s goddesses. I loved the juxtaposition of ‘The Two of Them’. Isaiah is full of love and something else and is the complete opposite of Samuel, who is the physical embodiment of where they live, ‘Empty’. And through them both, we see hope and the progression of resistance inspired by love. 

The rebellion may have started with the attempted hanging of Samuel, and ended with the loss of Isaiah but Samuel was the one who continued to carry on Isaiah’s love onward into the future. I could probably write an entire essay on Amos’ character and the themes of religion versus love and how the entirely of The Prophets but specifically the ending encapsulated it fully.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This was another fun story from C. S. E. Cooney. My only gripes with this was that there was less of a focus on the found family aspect and the relationships between characters than there was in the first book, and compared to the first book, the plot in the second was much more straightforward which made some of the plot points feel like they were there just to extend the length of the story. Otherwise, I completely loved this sequel and C. S. E. Cooney may be one of my immediate buy authors now.

Saint Death’s Herald follows a much more confident, stronger Lanie on her quest to sing her Grandpa Rad back to Saint Death. I truly enjoyed Lanie’s development as a person and as a necromancer. I also adore Cooney’s subversion of the cold, brutal necromancer, to make Lanie filled with kindness and love, and have her work her magic through that love. I’m also so glad that Cooney didn’t create a romance between Makkovian and Lanie, because I hate oppressed x oppressor even if in this case, it was Amanita that kidnapped Makkovian in the first place. I also loved seeing his burgeoning relationship with Tanaliín and Duantri. I do wish we had seen more of Mak, Tan and Datu but their short moments brought warmth to the story. 

Again, the world building was expanded wonderfully and brought new lore in beautifully. It didn’t feel forced or like there was a knowledge dump at any point. I wish we had gotten more footnotes because I found them hilarious in the first book. I loved the expansion of Haaken’s and Cracchen’s characters, although I wish we saw more of Cracchen’s character post Grandpa Rad without the ghosts. I also thought that Lanie’s crush on Haaken was well written and I hope to see more of them in the next book. This was a great sequel.

This is the much sweeter cousin to Gideon the Ninth. I actually had so much fun reading this. Lanie, the main character fucked up a lot and had to learn how to trust others, rely on others and I loved her character progression so much. It had a set religion and belief system, found family, varied world building and queerness was a norm (I need more fantasy writers to take notes please and thank you). 

I think this was a fantastic NA fantasy with complex characters and well thought out world building. I liked that there wasn’t a focus on romance but we still see a romance develop between Lanie and Canon Lir, I liked that Lanie’s mistakes were based on her naivety which made sense considering her upbringing. I loved how diverse the cast of characters were and the progression of the bonds between them.

The premise for this was super cool but not well thought out or well executed. The entire first part of the story dragged and I almost DNFed by 25%. I also wasn’t a fan of the romance. Considering that Aleksander betrayed Violet multiple times and Penelope straight up told her that he told Penelope everything Violet shared with him, I don’t understand why she kept trusting him and then getting surprised that he was still working for Penelope. Other than the nonsensical plot and pacing issues, the prose was very beautiful and I liked the vibes and atmosphere, I just wish the story had more atmosphere.

Thank you to Netgally for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did. I am tired of Gaelic inspired fantasy and this came at a bad time. I don’t mind fantasy novels with a lot of world building but I just wished less of it occurred in info dumps. 

Kylene and Lovelace were interesting enough characters but I didn’t like Lovelace’s POV until about 80% of the way through and I think he made the story drag. Kylene’s may have been more interesting due to the fact that she was younger and her journey was so much newer to her than Lovelace’s was to him. I did enjoy the banter between Lovelace and Gunnar and Pif was one of the most enjoyable characters in the book. 

My biggest issues were the pacing, the character arcs and the antagonist. To start, the beginning of the book is so visceral and attention that everything afterwards felt like a drag (again, a lot of it was during Lovelace’s POV. 

I also think the book was dragged down by the very binary good versus evil characters and plot. Because every character had a very strict archetype, it felt like there was little room for character development or deviation from a set, predictable plot.  This good versus evil also heavily applies to the antagonists. Alev and Osbert are very stereotypical villains that don’t have much going for them, either to make me believe that they’re extremely evil (other than were told they are) or to even find some sort of sympathy for them. 

I also think that even if a first book is intent on world building for a series, there still needs to be more happening (for example Black Sun did a good job of this). This fantasy world where magic exists also just had such strict rules regarding gender and sexuality, I just wish we saw fantasy writers stray from.