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All in Fiction
No One Is Talking About This isn’t going to be for everyone, but it was for me. It’s abstract, but really captures the claustrophobic feeling of the current zeitgeist.
Senlin Ascends, about a schoolteacher on a quest to find his missing wife in the infamous Tower of Babel, is such a fun adventure. I’d been meaning to read it forever, and I’m glad I finally did!
The School for Good Mothers is a wild ride of a novel. It’s not comfortable, but it’s extremely effective and absolutely does what it meant to do. I was so impressed.
I’m late to the Jesmyn Ward party, but holy moly am I HERE NOW. What a standout novel. Such incredible characters, pacing, language, the whole nine yards.
I absolutely loved Great Circle. It’s sweeping, it’s emotional, it’s beautifully written. It kept me engaged and made me feel things — and what more can you ask for?
The Bronzed Beasts was a great conclusion and delivered everything fans have come to love about the Gilded Wolves trilogy. These books aren’t complex, but they’re fun and dramatic and fast-paced.
The first three Lady Astronaut novels are fun to read with an imaginative premise, and they’re impressively packed with research. I had a good time reading them!
The City We Became is a fast-paced, imaginative, super fun urban fantasy set in New York City. As a person who lives here, I ate it up. I can’t wait to see where the series goes.
The Sentence is a moving novel about the pandemic and the protests of June 2020, told through a formerly incarcerated bookseller’s eyes. Reading it felt like poking a fresh wound, but this book is excellent.
Our Country Friends is a wild romp of a novel; a cultural-examination-through-dramedy with a ton of voice and character. It was a little too soon for me to relive 2020, but I respect what this book did.
Even Greater Mistakes is a wide-reaching collection of stories that will have something for everyone. Anders is just so good at cutting to the heart of our humanity with bravery and compassion.
His Dark Materials is such a fun, imaginative story that still feels super modern and relevant, even with (because of?) its timeless message and classic feel. I can’t believe I had never read it!
Noor is a quick but exciting, hard sci-fi novel that offers some really great commentary on ableism, privacy, and environmentalism. Not my favorite Okorafor, but a good one!
The Bone Shard Emperor was a great sequel to The Bone Shard Daughter. There was quite a bit of worldbuilding in the beginning, but the ending was really good. I can’t wait to read the last one!
Alien Stories is a resonant, haunting little collection. Every story made an impression on me, and I was so impressed with Osondu’s imaginative, precise craft.
The Ghost Variations is a fun and smart set of 100 flash fiction ghost stories. I read a few each day in October and loved it. Brockmeier has created something really creative here.
I was lukewarm on Gideon the Ninth, and unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of Harrow either. The ending was good — but you spend the whole book not just curious, but deeply lost and confused. I didn’t find it much fun.
Hell of a Book is a really creative, really affecting novel that’s as funny as it is devastating. One heck of a ride, it will surprise you and move you.
