5/5

Loaned to me by my best friend who essentially told me "You'll love this" and nothing more, I went in pretty blind bar what was in the blurb. We follow Teo, the semi-mortal son of the goddess of birds who is selected to compete in The Sunbearer trials. The winner will be crowned Sunbearer and the loser will be sacrificed for the safety of the realm. 

- I adored the world the author created. Central American inspired settings and characters were amazing and the inclusiveness of the world was absolutely amazing. I love how seemlessly gender, attraction, disability and other topics were just day to day, normal parts of society. I also appreciated that even though certain characters made bad choices and actions that people still respected their pronouns and identities.

- The plot kept my interest throughout, to the point where I read over half the book in one day. It's twists and turns and variety of settings and challenges were amazing to imagine and I enjoyed exploring and moving through the story with the characters.

- I really enjoyed seeing how Teo changed over the course of the story and how events, connections and his sense of morality affected his choices. I also enjoyed several of the side characters' development and how they interlaced with Teo.

Well, my bestie was right, I loved this book and eagerly await the sequel. Would definitely recommend for those who enjoy YA fantasy with a semi real world setting such as Percy Jackson or the Hunger Games.

4.25/5

I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

As a pagan, I often like to read books by others on similar paths and so when this popped up on Netgalley, I requested a copy. The book goes through each of the Sabbats of The Wheel of the Year, detailing themes, ritual ideas and personal anecdotes from the author.

- I enjoyed how the book was structured and the reasoning given by the author. This book is a balanced mix between information, inspiration and encouragement to develop your own practice and I think Beattie strikes that balance very well. I like the inclusion of ideas for rituals, poetry and stories to encourage the reader to go forward and find their own path for each Sabbat.

- Whilst acknowledgement is given to other geographies and pagan paths, this book heavily focuses on the authors location and sect of paganism. It mainly centres around the northern hemisphere (in particular the UK) and around the Wiccan faith. The contents could be used by anyone worldwide with small adaptation though and the author does heavily encourage deciding your own path in terms of the spiritual side. She clearly intends it to be used as inspiration rather than a rulebook to be adhered to.

If you're looking for a book to begin or enrich your journey through the Wheel of the Year, this book is an excellent choice. It's simple enough for beginners and contains fresh ideas for those with some experience. 

5/5

I first saw Otherlands in Waterstones whilst visiting my brother earlier this year and was intrigued by the premise. Pretty much everytime I visited a bookshop since I looked for it, picking it up and wishing it would come out in paperback soon. My best friend took pity on me and bought me the hardcover for my birthday. And so my journey through the worlds of the past began.

- Each chapter is dedicated to a time period of the past. The Cenozoic is has more attention paid to it than earlier time periods but it works in the context of this book and it not being insanely long.  The worlds are varied. We are shown the Mammoth steppe, ancient Antarctic forests, Jurassic seas, the paleozoic coal swaps that provided our modern day fuel and the early beginning of multicellular life in the sea. Each setting is like a flowing documentary, taking a moment to document several species, the interactions between lifeforms, the landscape, the weather. It is all beautifully described and amazingly well referenced.

- The emphasis put of the complexity of life is wonderful. The author takes time to make sure that the reader is aware that life and ecosystems are complex and multidimensional, every element impacting multiple others. There's no linear producer-consumer-consumer plotlines here.

- The epilogue of this book is both reflective and forward looking. It walks the line between doom and hope we'll when discussing the future of life on earth and the impact humans will have and may continue to inflict. It makes the reader consider the choices our species has to make and the action we will have to take if we want to prevent catastrophic levels of destruction on our planet.

Perfect for me and other paleontology nuts. If you like ancient life and well referenced narrative nonfiction, give this treat of a book a try.

4/5

For the end of October, I wanted to immerse myself in a good ghost story. Thin Air had been in my library for a while and, being by one of my favourite authors, I decided to give it a listen. The reward was a classically style adventure ghost story with building dread and a cumulative understanding of what had happened in the past.

- The setting of this book was insane, from starting in Darjeeling to the trek up Kangchenjunga to returning to the normalcy of depression era London, you felt where you were. The descriptions were beautiful, hauntingly accurate and full of wonder.

- The characters were everything you'd expect from an early 20th century adventure novel. A bunch of spritely chaps who went to good schools decide to scale a previous unscalable mountain with the usual level of British camaraderie. The one difference to these novels that I did enjoy was that the native porters employed for the expedition were treated as humans by the narrator and not humanoid pack mules. It could have been better but considering the attitudes of the time period being covered and the racist precedent in similar literature, Thin Air did very well.

- The ghost story was wonderfully creepy. I'm not entirely sure all of it made sense but it made me feel dread and fear for our characters high up in the mountains. It is built slowly and carefully, stepping up the tension well.

If you like a good adventure with a tense, supernatural element, you could do so much worse than Thin Air. I would recommend to those who want a short and creepy story set within the real world.

4/5

Audiobook narrated by Simon Prebble.

An intricate, winding and mysterious tale of two English magicians in Georgian England. With the aim of restoring magic to England, the titular magicians face challenges from bureaucracy, faeries and in-fighting between themselves.

- The first thing that anyone would notice about this book is that it is long! Over 1000 pages or 32 hours depending on format, this is a behemoth of a book. The plot is intricate, winding, made up of many small parts and very much a book about the journey rather than the destination. That said, as magical as the story was it did seem to have superfluous elements that could have been skimmed over.

- The characters were a real treat. I loved how different the magicians were and how the interactions between all the characters were described so beautifully. I came away feeling conflicted about most of the characters in the best possible way. There is no good or evil, just shades of both.

- The imagery of the book is wonderfully vivid and evocative. You feel the story as much as read it and it is beautiful.

A long but worthwhile historic fantasy with a twisting and turning journey. Perfect for those who like detailed and environmental words, a cast of complicated characters and an mysterious ambience.

3.5/5

A sweet and slightly spooky graphic novel. Marj is struggling to keep her family's laundry business alive when the arrival of Wendall the ghost causes chaos.

- The art style is very pretty and eye catching. I also liked how it changed between the real world and ghost world.

- The story is very sweet but a little empty. I felt there could have been more time devoted to developing the plot and making me care properly for the characters.

- I like how the book portrays the different effects of grief and how different people are affected. This is very well shown and a little heart twinging at times.

A short and enjoyable little story for those looking for a more wholesome graphic novel for spooky season.

4/5

A short, weird but interesting novel in an afrofuturistic setting. A girl becomes changed, gains a potential lethal ability and goes on a journey, learning about herself and her power.

- The setting is wonderful. Set in what feels like near future West Africa, I enjoyed how Okorafor describes and shows the world in snippets and and glimpses of both the familiar and the new.

- Our main character is confusing, scared and scary. She grows up, makes mistakes, learns and becomes her own person. Her journey provokes thought about society, growing up and learning about oneself and challenges associated with being different and potentially dangerous.

- Move pick. I've no real idea of his purpose of why he was included but I loved him. Fox fans will be pleased.

Interesting if sometimes confusing. I would recommend it to those looking for books with futuristic settings, character focused sci-fi and introspective prose.

4.5/5

I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this book. It is many things, wrapped under one cover. The best I think I can convey is that it's an experience: a messy, raw, melodious experience rife with lust, grief, joy, hurt and love. It is very human.


- The prose in this book is gorgeous. A book dealing with such naked feelings would normally feel sharp and more precise to me whereas Emezi weaves their words into a descriptive honey that coats everything. Even the more heart-wrenching sections of this book feel smooth and right and the prose creates amazing contrast sometimes to the contents.

- The characters are complicated and multifaceted. I don't think I like or hate any of them but rather appreciate them for the messy, grey areas of humanity that they are. They make this story very relatable.

- The exploration of grief and the way you the reader are plunged into the sensations surrounding it is amazing and I like that it doesn't necessarily focus on "recovering" from grief but more embracing it, using it to develop the characters.

An experience. I would recommend it to those who like beautiful wordsmithery, exploration of heavy emotions (particularly grief) and books that show the human nature of people.

4.25/5

A beautiful fantasy YA with really lovely queer and gender nonconforming representation. Evelyn is an imperial lady, sent by ship to marry a man she's never met. Florian is a pirate on that ship, which plans to enslave and sell its noble cargo. Beyond them is a backdrop of sea magic, witchcraft, a mysterious pirate overlord and beautiful mermaids.

- The world in which this book is set is beautiful and detailed and you can tell the author knows more beyond what they show. Sadly the narrative restricted what we saw of this world and the pace made it difficult at times to soak in the settings and vibes of places. 

- As a genderfluid individual, there is a chapter within this book that makes me feel seen in a way I've not felt before. Genderfluid representation is hard to come by, especially well done rep, so to find a book that so wonderfully puts to words what it feels to be genderfluid is utterly amazing. For that chapter alone I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't cisgender. There's also well written sapphic and nonbinary representation.

- The chapters switch between the perspectives of several different characters and I really enjoyed how it was done. Being aware of this twisting situation that each character has different involvement and investment in was fascinating and made the story easy to read and follow.

Beautiful, mystical and queer. Highly recommend for the representation and interesting world.

3.75/5

A pretty and atmospheric but short graphic novel, Zoc tells the story of the eponymous character who has the ability to drag large quantities of water with her hair.

- The artwork is gorgeous and creates a beautiful setting for the story. The world created is sweet and detailed. Although not gone into in-depth, I enjoyed the addition of the bards that wander this world.

- The story is nice. It's not mind-blowing or overwhelmingly amazing but it's still enjoyable. To me it felt a little fast and that the book could have been longer and gone into more depth. The characters felt a little bit shallow due to the rushed nature and I would have loved to explore them more.

If you like pretty, short and simple graphic novels with sweet and uncomplicated storylines, Zoc is worth picking up.