The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

Author: Zoraida Córdova
Publisher: Atria
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers.

Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Marimar, Rey, and Tatinelly’s daughter, Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orquídea’s line. Determined to save what’s left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, the four descendants travel to Ecuador—to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back.

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TL;DR Review

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina is a really lovely standalone low fantasy novel in homage to Latinx family ties, traditions, and heritage. It pulled me in and held me the whole way.

For you if: You like low fantasy (magical elements in a real-world setting) and/or want to read more fantasy by Latinx authors.

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Full Review

“When she'd met Orquídea Montoya, she saw a whisper of a girl who wanted to become a scream.”

What a fun, lovely, magical story that Zoraida Córdova has given us in The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. It’s a standalone low fantasy novel (meaning the magical elements occur in a real-world setting) that almost feels like a modern-day fairytale, with great characters, a strong central mystery, and plenty of moments that tug on your heart.

Orquídea Montoya is the magical matriarch of a sprawling Ecuadorian-American family. One day, they all receive a letter inviting them home to claim their inheritance, as the time of her death has come. When they arrive, she’s begun a kind of transformation and leaves them with cryptic messages about staying safe. That sends a few of her grandchildren on a hunt for the truth — how Orquídea became Orquídea, what kind of deal she struck with whom, and who hunts them now.

This book is clearly a love letter to Ecuadorian family traditions, ties, and heritage; Córdova has written a story that sings with heart. I loved Marimar and Rey as characters, the magic sparkles, and I really enjoyed trying to solve the mystery as I read.

If you’re looking for a standalone novel that provides a quick, magical trip into an engaging story, pick this one up!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death and grief

• Racism / colorism

• Pregnancy

• Infidelity

• Death of a child

Light from Uncommon Stars

Author: Ryka Aoki
Publisher: Tor Books
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

An adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

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TL;DR Review

Light from Uncommon Stars was such a delight! Funny and hopeful but not without substance, this book is a new favorite I’ll be recommending far and wide.

For you if: You like quirky, feel-good SFF, like Becky Chambers or Douglas Adams — especially with great queer representation.

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Full Review

“Tomorrow is tomorrow. Over there is over there. And here and now is not a bad place and time to be, especially when so much of the unknown is beautiful.”

Y’all. Y’ALL. If you liked A Psalm for the Wild-Built (or any Becky Chambers) or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you MUST read this book as soon as possible. I’m only four months behind its pub day, and I still can’t believe I didn’t read it sooner. Funny and feel-good with the weight and substance to make an impact, this is a book I’m going to be recommending far and wide.

The story has two main characters: Katrina, a teenage trans girl who’s run away from a terrible home situation with nothing but her hormones and her violin; and legendary violin teacher Shizuka Satomi, who long ago made a Faustian bargain with Hell to deliver seven musician souls in order to ensure the immortality of her own music. Also of consequence is Lan Tran, an alien woman who brought her family to Earth (and bought a local donut shop) to flee intergalactic war. (Does that not just sound AMAZING? It is.)

This book is exactly what we all need right now. It’s got intensely lovable characters, a plot that has a familiar shape without becoming predictable, beautiful queer rep, an ode to the world of classical music, and, of course donuts. (Warning: You will crave donuts. You may think you are strong and neglect to have donuts on hand when you read it. This is a mistake. You will find yourself in a snowstorm unable to even get overly expensive Krispy Kreme delivery and be sad.)

I will just note, as a content warning, that Katrina has some really, really hard things happen to her, and she battles intense transphobia and even sexual abuse. I thought it was well-done and served the story and the representation in important ways. But it could be hard to read for some.

Anyway, I loved this deeply. Give yourself the gift of this book, my friends!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Transphobia and homophobia

• Violence against trans people

• Deadnaming

• Sexual assault and rape

• Child abuse

• Suicidal thoughts

• Self harm

• Racism

The Left Hand of Darkness

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Ace Books (50th anniversary edition; originally published 1969)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

On the planet Winter, there is no gender. The Gethenians can become male or female during each mating cycle, and this is something that humans find incomprehensible.

The Ekumen of Known Worlds has sent an ethnologist to study the Gethenians on their forbidding, ice-bound world. At first he finds his subjects difficult and off-putting, with their elaborate social systems and alien minds. But in the course of a long journey across the ice, he reaches an understanding with one of the Gethenians — it might even be a kind of love.

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TL;DR Review

I’m really glad I read The Left Hand of Darkness. It wasn’t as accessible as I’d (naively) assumed it would be, but it was certainly thought-provoking and resonant.

For you if: You want to read foundational works of SFF (especially by women) and like books that are or read like “classics.”

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Full Review

“Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.”

I’ve been meaning to dive deeper into Ursula Le Guin for years now, but I’d only ever read A Wizard of Earthsea (which I loved). And now I’ve finally, *finally* read The Left Hand of Darkness. Those two together are probably the two most famous of her 40ish books, and TLHOD, published in 1969, was one of the first books considered “feminist” sci-fi and is known as THE classic sci-fi novel that explored androgyny and nonbinary characters. It’s a standalone story, but also the fourth book set in her Hainish Cycle universe.

The story is about a man named Ai, who has come to the planet of Gethen as an envoy to try to get them to join a loose non-political association of worlds that facilitates shared knowledge and culture. On Gethen, people have no fixed gender or sex; they’re non-sexual for most of the month, and then enter “kemmer,” assuming either male or female body parts and pairing up until their period of kemmer ends. (Hence one of the book’s most famous lines, “The king was pregnant.”) The book explores themes of duality, gender roles and what the absence of them might look like, the necessity of differences, and the challenges of cultural misunderstandings.

While I liked this book and am really glad I read it, I think because I read Earthsea (which was written for a younger audience) first, I had expected it to be a bit more accessible. It very much reads like a classic, and so I found it helpful to read through a sparknotes-style summary and interpretation after each chapter, just to make sure I grasped the subtext and didn’t miss anything famously important.

That said, there’s no doubt that I’ll think about this book throughout the rest of my life. She raises so many good questions about the possibilities outside our own assumptions, especially as it relates to gender roles. I’m looking forward to reading the other Hainish Cycle novels and beyond.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death and grief

• Confinement

• Misogyny

• Incest (minor)

• Suicide (minor)

Clean Air

Author: Sarah Blake
Publisher: Algonquin
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

The climate apocalypse has come and gone, and in the end it wasn’t the temperature climbing or the waters rising. It was the trees. The world became overgrown, creating enough pollen to render the air unbreathable.

In the decade since the event known as the Turning, humanity has rebuilt, and Izabel has gotten used to the airtight domes that now contain her life. She raises her young daughter, Cami, and attempts to make peace with her mother’s death. She tries hard to be satisfied with this safe, prosperous new world, but instead she just feels stuck.

And then the peace of her town is shattered. Someone starts slashing through the domes at night, exposing people to the deadly pollen—a serial killer. Almost simultaneously, Cami begins sleep-talking, having whole conversations about the murders that she doesn’t remember after she wakes. Izabel becomes fixated on the killer, on both tracking him down and understanding him. What could compel someone to take so many lives after years dedicated to sheer survival, with humanity finally flourishing again?

Suspenseful and startling, but also written with a wry, observant humor, Clean Air is the second novel from poet Sarah Blake, author of the award-winning literary debut Naamah. It will appeal to readers of The Need, The Leftovers, and Fever Dream as it probes motherhood, grief, control, and choice.

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TL;DR Review

Clean Air is a smart, surprising, character-driven thriller set in a world ravaged by climate change. I read 75% of it in one sitting and was so surprised by the twist/reveal.

For you if: You like to be hooked but genre thrillers aren’t your thing, and/or you like climate fiction.

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Full Review

First, thank you to Algonquin Books for the advanced copy of this novel! It comes out February 8. I really loved Sarah Blake’s first novel, Naamah, and I’ve been waiting for her next one ever since. Clean Air is very different (totally different genre), but I loved this one too.

Clean Air is a character-driven thriller set about 30 years in the future. The world looks totally different thanks to what was called the Turning, when all the trees started spewing so much pollen that it made the air unbreathable. Now everyone lives in air-filtered bubbles, essentially. But then someone starts slashing the bubbles open at night! And our main character’s young daughter talks about the murders in her sleep — while they’re happening!! As you might expect with a premise like that, this is a really quick read — I finished 75% of it in a single sitting. Sometimes we literary fiction readers really just need a fast-paced story to hook us like that!

I’m not really a big fan of your typical genre thrillers, but I can totally get behind a “literary” thriller like this (character development and interiority 5ever). Especially with the climate angle. Izabel really is a great character, and her inner turmoil with motherhood and grief (about many different things) and her society’s unwillingness to see darkness under the surface was sharp and deeply felt.

My favorite part about it was the part I can’t tell you anything about without spoiling it — the twist/reveal. It went in a direction I just hadn’t expected, although looking back, all the clues were there. I think people will either love it or hate it, but I loved it. So I can’t wait for more people to read this one and talk about it!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death/murder

• Death of a parent/grief

No One Is Talking About This

Author: Patricia Lockwood
Publisher: Riverhead
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats—from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness—begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal's void. An avalanche of images, details, and references accumulate to form a landscape that is post-sense, post-irony, post-everything. "Are we in hell?" the people of the portal ask themselves. "Are we all just going to keep doing this until we die?"

Suddenly, two texts from her mother pierce the fray: "Something has gone wrong," and "How soon can you get here?" As real life and its stakes collide with the increasingly absurd antics of the portal, the woman confronts a world that seems to contain both an abundance of proof that there is goodness, empathy, and justice in the universe, and a deluge of evidence to the contrary.

Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You like to read poetry.

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Full Review

“It was a mistake to believe that other people were not living as deeply as you were. Besides, you were not even living that deeply.”

There was, perhaps, no literary fiction more polarizing in 2021 than No One Is Talking About This. As it was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize, I don’t think there’s any arguing that Lockwood has done something big here — but I totally understand why it didn’t work for some people. Personally, I liked it a lot.

It’s a short novel — I read it in one sitting — broken into two parts. The first is a series of vignettes about “the portal” (like the internet or maybe just Twitter, but like, turned up to 11), where the narrator is famous and to which she is addicted. In the second part, a family tragedy wrenches her away from the foggy, disoriented life she’d been leading.

Okay, so: I really think that to enjoy this book, you have to enjoy reading poetry. Lockwood is also a poet, and it shows. Reading poetry is often more about feeling than anything else; you have to sort of just relax and notice what kinds of emotions and images the poem stir up as you go, and THAT is the whole point of it. So too here, especially in part one. If that’s not your thing, you aren’t going to like this. But I did. And I’ll also say that I listened to the audiobook as I read along in print, and I think it made a HUGE difference. Highly recommend.

I was really impressed by how this book was absurd but also hit so, so close to home. It captures a claustrophobic feeling that you can’t name about the current zeitgeist. The trap of liberal perfectionism, the urge to look away but absolute inability to do so, the pain of having loved ones with a completely different moral compass, the competing desire to join in and also reject all of it, the paradox of your own personality. How it takes a tragedy to pull us off the hamster wheel but then everything shrinks and slows, and that might be when we start to live the most.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death of a baby

• Grief

Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel, #1)

Author: Josiah Bancroft
Publisher: Orbit (originally self-published)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.

Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.

Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.

This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

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TL;DR Review

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!

For you if: You’re a sucker for a bookish main character with a lot of room for growth.

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Full Review

Senlin Ascends, the first book in Josiah Bancroft’s recently completed Books of Babel quartet, has been waiting for me to pluck it off my shelf for at least two years. I’m glad I finally did! It’s a fun adventure with humor and imagination, but also substance.

The story is about a man named Thomas Senlin. He’s a schoolteacher in his small seaside village, recently married to a bright-spirited woman named Marya. They go to the famous Tower of Babel — a booming metropolis and reputed cultural center of the world that Senlin has long ached to see. But shortly after they get there, Marya disappears, and Senlin realizes the Tower isn’t all that he imagined it to be. His resolve to find her turns into a true quest as he makes his way up the tower’s “ringdoms.” (Yes, there’s an echo of Dante’s Inferno there.)

Certain parts of this book moved a little slowly, but there was, of course, lots of worldbuilding to be done. Anyway, it totally picked up at the end, and I love the hints at a nice little central mystery related to the tower itself, under the bigger mystery of Marya’s whereabouts. I also have such a soft spot in my heart for Senlin. He starts off naive and self-assured, but also clearly lovable. It was a delight to watch him start to change but also stay true to himself! And while there wasn’t much Marya in this book, the picture being painted of her makes me think I’m going to love her even MORE.

Fun fact: The first two books in this series were originally self-published, and they absolutely knocked people’s socks off. Orbit picked them up a few years later, reprinting the first two and finishing the last two. And it’s easy to see why. Book two, I’m coming for you soon!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Slavery/indenture

• Body horror

• Death and grief

• Kidnapping/forced marriage

• Drug use and alcohol

• Gun violence

The School for Good Mothers

Author: Jessamine Chan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough.

Until Frida has a horrible day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.

This propulsive, witty page-turner explores the perils of “perfect” upper-middle-class parenting, the violence enacted upon women by the state and each other, and the boundless love a mother has for her daughter.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You’re okay with books that aren’t always FUN to read, when it’s worth it.

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Full Review

“A mother can handle anything. A mother is always patient. A mother is always kind. A mother is always giving. A mother never falls apart. A mother is the buffer between her child and the cruel world.”

First, big thanks to Simon & Schuster for the electronic advanced copy of this book! What a way to start the year. This book is an absolutely wild ride.

The story is about a woman named Frida, a struggling single mom of a toddler who makes a terrible decision that costs her custody. In order to earn her daughter back, she must agree to an experimental new CPS program. It’s hard to say much more than that without giving things away, but suffice to say that the whole thing has a feeling of dystopia that’s just far enough inside the realm of possibility to be disturbing.

It’s been a long time since I read a book that stirred me up so much. I could have thrown it at the wall. There were several side characters that I desperately wanted to punch. Think like, Umbridge-level rage and frustration. That alone is an impressive feat. And yet the greatest triumph of the book, I think, is Frida as a character. She’s both sympathetic and unsympathetic. She forces us to confront our own ideas of what a mother should be, as we both recognize the absurdity of the standards she’s being held to and decide how we feel about the past decisions she’s made.

This book is a masterful look at the conflicting and absurd societal pressures and expectations of motherhood. If you can push your way through an uncomfortable book for the sake of the craft and impact of the story, pick it up.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Suicidal thoughts

• Self-harm and suicide (off screen)

• Child abuse/abandonment

• Child custody battle

• Infidelity

Salvage the Bones

Author: Jesmyn Ward
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. While brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that comprise the novel's framework yield to the final day and Hurricane Katrina, the unforgettable family at the novel's heart--motherless children sacrificing for each other as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce--pulls itself up to struggle for another day. A wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bone is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You like brave, exquisitely written literary fiction.

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Full Review

“If the scrapes were on the front of our knees, she would put our dirty feet in the middle of her chest to clean the wounds, and we could feel her heart beating, strong as the thud of the ground when we walked, through our soles.”

There are most certainly many people who have praised this book much more thoroughly than I can. But it’s just not every day that you read a novel like Salvage the Bones. It’s not every year that the world births a writing talent like Jesmyn Ward.

Salvage the Bones is about a teen girl named Esch, who lives near the coast of Mississippi with her father and three brothers. Her mother died from labor complications when her youngest brother was born. She’s also constantly surrounded brothers’ friends, one of whom is the father of the baby growing in her belly. At the same time, Hurricane Katrina is coming, and one brother’s prize pit bull just had very valuable puppies.

This novel packs such a punch, and in less than 300 pages, too. The prose is incredible, lines like, “But the wind grabs my voice up and snatches it out and over the pines, and drops it there to die.” She does so much in so little space. You could cut the tension on every page with a knife; it’s coiled tight like a spring. So much emotion, so much visceral sensory detail, so much unsaid.

Okay I’m using a lot of superlative language lol but just — ahhhh, just read it.

Warning: There is a very graphic and violent dog fighting scene in this book.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Animal cruelty and violence (dog fighting, graphic)

• Pregnancy

• Death of a parent

• Alcoholism

• Hurricane Katrina

Son of the Storm (The Nameless Republic, #1)

Author: Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Publisher: Orbit
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

From one of the most exciting new storytellers in epic fantasy, Son of the Storm is a sweeping tale of violent conquest and forgotten magic set in a world inspired by the pre-colonial empires of West Africa.

In the ancient city of Bassa, Danso is a clever scholar on the cusp of achieving greatness—only he doesn’t want it. Instead, he prefers to chase forbidden stories about what lies outside the city walls. The Bassai elite claim there is nothing of interest. The city’s immigrants are sworn to secrecy.

But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders. And the chaos left in the wake of his discovery threatens to destroy the empire.

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TL;DR Review

Son of the Storm is a fun start to a new fantasy series. It’s got strong themes, a great magic system, and characters with lots of room to grow.

For you if: You want to read more West African-inspired fantasy.

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Full Review

First, thank you to Orbit for the electronic review copy! Epic fantasy and a cover like that — how could Son of the Storm not catch my eye? I enjoyed it and will definitely be reading book two in the Nameless Republic trilogy when it comes out later this year.

Son of the Storm jumps around in terms of point of view, but the main character is a young man named Danso. He’s from a caste that normally wouldn’t be allowed to become scholars, but in a society that claims to prize knowledge above all else, his photographic memory earns him a place at the university. Until he gets too curious. And meets a person who isn’t supposed to exist from a place that isn’t supposed to exist with a magic that isn’t supposed to exist.

I liked this book, although I think the trilogy is truly going to take off in book two. This one’s pacing wasn’t the fastest and felt a bit like a long exposition. Still, it has a ton of promising elements — a good central mystery, great magic system, and plenty of questions left to answer — that feel like they’re about to combine into epicness. It’s also got a GREAT villain who has only truly become the villain by the end of book one. In fact, all the characters are a bit unlikeable (immature, stubborn, making selfish choices) for most of this book, which can feel a little frustrating but also feels REAL and I think will set up some great character arcs by the end of the trilogy.

I also really appreciated the imaginative worldbuilding here and the way it examines things like colorism, classism, xenophobia, and diaspora. I’m excited to see those themes develop even more in book two.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Racism and xenophobia (imagined universe)

• Body horror

• Pregnancy

• Death and grief

Great Circle

Author: Maggie Shipstead
Publisher: Knopf
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Cover Description

Spanning Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London, and modern-day Los Angeles, Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost.

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.

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TL;DR Review

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?

For you if: You like historical fiction that spans a character’s entire lifetime.

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Full Review

Great Circle officially landed on my TBR because it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A friend who read through the whole longlist earlier this year told me they thought it might turn out to be my favorite of them all. And I think, perhaps, they might be right! At least so far.

The book has two main characters. First is Marian Graves, born in 1914, who becomes one of the rare woman pilots of her time and eventually (don’t worry, this is not a spoiler) disappears trying to circumnavigate the globe. Marian’s story is probably 75% of the book, if I had to guess. We follow her from childhood and all the way through her life. The other main character is Hadley, a modern-day movie star cast to play Marian in a film, who learns more about her than anyone else.

The book is long, just under 600 pages, but I didn’t mind it. As you read, you really become so immersed in these characters and their lives. Some people at book club said they did sometimes wish it was shorter, but they couldn’t think of anything they’d cut. In fact, some people lamented the fact that there wasn’t even MORE from Hadley. Personally, I thought the balance between Marian and Hadley was just right and pulled the story along nicely.

Random thought: One of my favorite backlist reads this year was The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo, and while they don’t have a TON in common, they gave me similar feelings — a years-long timeframe, lots of pages that I was happy to read, and lots of emotions.

Anywho, if you have the patience for long books and love novels that span a lifetime, this is for you!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Rape

• Adult/minor relationship

• Domestic abuse

• Alcoholism

• Drug use

• Death and grief

• Abortion

• Sexism and misogyny

The Bronzed Beasts (The Gilded Wolves, #3)

Author: Roshani Chokshi
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

***Description is spoiler for The Gilded Wolves and The Silvered Serpents***

In love they breathed. In destiny they believed. In the end, will divinity be their demise?

After Séverin's seeming betrayal, the crew is fractured. Armed with only a handful of hints, Enrique, Laila, Hypnos and Zofia must find their way through the snarled, haunted waterways of Venice, Italy to locate Séverin.

Meanwhile, Séverin must balance the deranged whims of the Patriarch of the Fallen House and discover the location of a temple beneath a plague island where the Divine Lyre can be played and all that he desires will come to pass.

With only ten days until Laila expires, the crew will face plague pits and deadly masquerades, unearthly songs and the shining steps of a temple whose powers might offer divinity itself... but at a price they may not be willing to pay.

Returning to the dark and glamorous 19th century world of her New York Times instant bestseller, The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi dazzles us with the final riveting tale as full of mystery and danger as ever.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You like multi-POV heist novels and can handle some cheesiness.

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Full Review

My friend Danielle originally got me into The Gilded Wolves back when it came out. It was fun and dramatic and adventurous. The second book, The Silvered Serpents, was just as fun and dramatic. As expected, The Bronzed Beasts is the trilogy conclusion we expected and wanted, delivering everything fans have come to love about these characters and their story.

No spoilers for the first two books, but here’s what I will say: They’re like Six of Crows meets National Treasure, lol. They’re set in 1800s Paris/Europe and feature a merry(ish) band of misfits: Séverin, the dark and brooding leader; Laila, the sweet but sharp woman with a dark secret; Enrique, a scholar who longs to make a name for himself; Zofia, a neurodivergent genius; and Hypnos, a mixed-race, not-quite-accepted member of the elite (and true icon). Mix them together with the mysterious “Fallen House” seeking godhood through the lost Tower of Babel, mysteries and heists that depend on historical puzzles and clues, a ticking clock on someone’s life, and more.

I cannot emphasize enough how DRAMATIC these books are, in the best kind of cheesy way. Especially Séverin, whose internal monologue often had me texting Danielle like OMG. They’re just plain fun. Fantasy novel candy. They’re also fast-paced and make for great reads in between heavier novels.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Violence and blood

• Death and grief

The Lady Astronaut Novels

Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: Tor
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

Description for book 1, The Calculating Stars:

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.

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TL;DR Review

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!

For you if: You like hard sci-fi and/or astronomy and/or math and/or historical fiction, or you’re looking for Jewish rep in SFF

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Full Review

I set out to read the Lady Astronaut novels, of which there are currently three, when the third one (The Relentless Moon) was nominated for the 2021 Hugo Award. When I set out, I thought they were a trilogy. Actually, though, the first two (The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky) are a duology, and the third one is connected but slightly separate. Anywho, this is a combo review for all three novels, which I now realize is a little strange, but hey here goes.

The Lady Astronaut books are historical fiction/hard sci-fi novels that take place in an alternate 1950s and ‘60s. The Calculating Stars starts thus: A meteor crashes into DC, destroying the US government and triggering a dinosaur-style climate extinction event. The race to colonize space is on, and a young mathematician named Elma York is determined to be the first woman in space — and dubbed by the media “the Lady Astronaut.” The third book takes place at the same time as The Fated Sky, but in a different setting with a different main character (someone who was a secondary character in the duology). It’s actually more of a sci-fi mystery, which was cool.

All in all, I thought these books were fun. They have sort of slow pacing and can be a bit cheesy (Elma and her #goals husband, Nathaniel, have some hilarious fade-to-black “rocket launch” bedroom banter, which honestly I loved), but they’re exquisitely researched and explore important things like white saviorism, being Jewish, mental health, eating disorders, and disability through a 1950s lens. At the end of the day, they worked well for my busy brain as I pushed through long days of end-of-year work hustle.

If you like hard sci-fi and/or astronomy and/or math and/or historical fiction, or you’re looking for Jewish rep in SFF, these could be a great choice for you.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Sexism and misogyny (all 3)

• Racism and homophobia (all 3)

• Panic attacks and anxiety (severe/detailed/main lot point, book 1)

• Suicide attempt (alluded to in the past, book 1/2)

• Anorexia (severe/detailed/main plot point, book 3)

The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)

Author: N.K. Jemisin
Publisher: Orbit
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You love New York City.

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Full Review

“This is the lesson: Great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn.”

Y’all, what a FUN book. You’ll see lots of people describe it as a love letter to NYC, and as a person who lives here, I had such a good time reading it.

The premise is really imaginative: All cities, when they reach a certain age or cultural tipping point, are born into living things. To help that process complete, there is always a human who takes on the city’s life force; a living avatar. Except New York has not one, but six avatars: one for each borough, and one for the city as a whole. But NYC’s birth gets disrupted by an ancient enemy who wants to stop it from being born, and so our six characters have to find each other to fortify and protect New York so it can finish being born and live on.

What makes this book so fun is how Jemisin infused these avatars with the culture, history, and lifeblood of their boroughs. You can tell she lives here and loves it deeply. It’s also very modern and of today, almost pop culture-ish. If you've ever lived here, you’ll recognize the city instantly through her eyes. It did occasionally feel a little TOO on the nose, but I also understand that Jemisin has to bring non-New Yorkers along for the ride too.

One thing I will say is that this is a very tough look for Staten Island, and it occasionally made me feel a little uncomfortable. The avatar, a girl named Aislyn, is a sheltered and racist daughter of a very racist and misogynistic police officer. And while it’s true that Staten Island is VERY red to the rest of NYC’s blue, it felt almost dismissive of the whole borough, like it’s a lost cause or full of bad guys, which doesn’t feel like a hopeful or helpful position. That said, I do think that Jemisin did a good job of showing how and why Aisyln became who she is, and she’s definitely got room for redemption, so I’m hoping that the next book focuses on the possible unity being hinted at.

Anyway, all told I had a lot of fun with this and I think you would too!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Racism and xenophobia

• Homophobia

• Attempted sexual assault

• Abortion (mentioned)

Exhalation

Author: Ted Chiang
Publisher: Knopf
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.

In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.

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TL;DR Review

Exhalation is sci-fi short stories at their best. All of these stories are transportation, imaginative, and almost existential (in a good way). They made me laugh, cry, and think. What more could you want?

For you if: You like sci-fi short stories (or any short stories!).

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Full Review

“Though I am long dead as you read this, explorer, I offer to you a valediction. Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.”

First of all, I owe a huge thanks to my friend who shoved this collection into my hands. I’d never read Ted Chiang before, but I have been wanting to read more SFF short stories lately, and this fit the bill perfectly. I was hooked from the very first, magical story, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate.

In each of these stories, Chiang examines something important — from how we grapple with past mistakes, to choice and free will, to the way we think about non-human sentient beings. Many of them play with storytelling form — for example, “Merchant” is narrated by a man as he recounts his story to a king, and “Exhalation” is a scientist penning a letter to future life forms. They’re also all different lengths, but each one was exactly how long it needed to be to do whatever thing it was trying to do.

Also, my practice of listening to the audiobook while reading along in print let me in on an inside secret: In the audiobook, each story has an author’s note where Chiang talks about his inspiration and process. I think they added a lot to my experience.

Like my friend, I strongly recommend this one!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Ableism (minor)

• Addiction (minor)

The Sentence

Author: Louise Erdrich
Publisher: Harper
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading with murderous attention, must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You like books about bookstores and/or want to read more books by Native American authors

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Full Review

Thank you to Harper Books for sending me an advanced copy of this book. This was actually my first book by Louise Erdrich, a prolific and highly regarded Native American author (she won last year’s Pulitzer, in fact). It certainly won’t be my last.

The Sentence is set primarily at Erdrich’s bookstore in Minneapolis and takes place from November 2019 to November 2020, and so a lot of the events center on COVID lockdown and the summer protests in response to George Floyd’s murder (who, you may remember, was killed in Minneapolis). It’s told through the eyes of one of the booksellers, a formerly incarcerated woman named Tookie. One of the bookstore’s most loyal customers passed away in November 2019, and her ghost is haunting the store. Tookie and the whole cast of characters (including, as a side character, Erdrich herself, what a flex) navigate current events and try to give their ghost the closure she’s looking for.

There’s so much to say about this one. I love Erdrich’s focus on Native American characters and their present-day lived realities. I love that she was brave enough to tell this story, so soon after the actual events — and especially as a resident of in Minneapolis. I loved that it took place in a bookstore and shone a light on how small businesses weathered the pandemic. I loved that the title has multiple meanings and resonates deeply.

Reading this one felt a little like poking an open wound, but it was worth it. When you’re ready, pick this one up.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• A recounting/reliving of 2020 (lockdown, COVID-19 fear, racial justice protests, election season)

• Addiction

• Police brutality

Our Country Friends

Author: Gary Shteyngart
Publisher: Random House
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

Eight friends, one country house, four romances, and six months in isolation — a powerful, emotionally rich novel about love, friendship, and betrayal, a book that reads like a great Russian novel, or Chekhov on the Hudson, by a novelist The New York Times calls "one of his generation's most original and exhilarating writers".

It's March 2020 and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaulate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters include: a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a young flame-thrower of an essayist, originally from the Carolinas; and a movie star, The Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.

In a remarkable literary feat, Gary Shteyngart has documented through fiction the emotional toll of our recent times: a story of love and friendship that reads like a great Russian novel set in upstate New York. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller, Super Sad True Love Story.

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You like stories with all The Drama™️.

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Full Review

Thank you to Random House for providing me with an electronic review copy of this book! It caught my eye because Salman Rushdie had blurbed it. And while it wasn’t fully comfortable, it’s definitely worth reading.

Our Country Friends is a pandemic novel. Not a pandemic — THE pandemic. It starts in March 2020, when a middle-aged Russian immigrant novelist invites a few of his friends, plus the Actor (who is working to adapt one of his novels) to his “estate” in an unnamed town up the Hudson from NYC. It follows this cast over the course of the following year, where they experience the tension of 2020 — fear of the virus, fear of others, fear for our livelihoods, a racial justice reckoning, the presidential election — as much of us did, at a secluded, disconnected remove.

It’s hard to sum this up succinctly. The book is a dramedy of sorts, a wild romp, written almost stagelike with a lot of voice and humor. But it’s not flip; it’s actually quite uncomfortably on the nose. It makes you laugh but also look at these characters and see yourself in them and remember 2020 and the undercurrent of tension, even for those who were very privileged and sheltered. Really, it’s very impressive.

I recommend this one if you like novels that employ pomp and drama for good reason, and if you aren’t afraid to look back at 2020 yet.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• A recounting/reliving of 2020 (lockdown, COVID-19 fear, racial justice protests, election season)

• Cancer / terminal illness

• Light ableism toward a child’s neurodivergence

• Marijuana and acohol use

Even Greater Mistakes

Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Publisher: Tor
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

In her short story collection, Even Greater Mistakes, Charlie Jane Anders upends genre cliches and revitalizes classic tropes with heartfelt and pants-wettingly funny social commentary.

The woman who can see all possible futures is dating the man who can see the one and only foreordained future.

A wildly popular slapstick filmmaker is drawn, against his better judgment, into working with a fascist militia, against a background of social collapse.

Two friends must embark on an Epic Quest To Capture The Weapon That Threatens The Galaxy, or else they’ll never achieve their dream of opening a restaurant.

The stories in this collection, by their very outrageousness, achieve a heightened realism unlike any other. Anders once again proves she is one of the strongest voices in modern science fiction, the writer called by Andrew Sean Greer, “this generation’s Le Guin.”

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TL;DR Review

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.

For you if: You like short stories with speculative elements.

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Full Review

Thank you, Tor, for providing me with an electronic advanced copy of this book! I am a big fan of Charlie Jane Anders, as a person and as a writer, and I jumped at the chance to read her first official story collection.

As you might expect from a prolific SFF writer who hasn’t published a story collection before (what?), this book is absolutely packed — truly, there’s something for everyone here. Perhaps my favorite was “Six Months, Three Days,” in which a girl who sees many futures and a boy who sees one future fall in love, despite knowing it won’t end well. It raised so many questions about free will. There are also follow-up stories to Anders’ novels The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky (which is one I especially loved). She also gives introductions and background on each story, which added an extra touch I really appreciated.

Anders cuts to the heart and humanity with clear-eyed compassion. These stories are not always comfortable (see trigger warnings), but the discomfort is always purposeful. She explores themes of transness and queerness, choice and identity, love and friendship, and so much more. I didn’t love every single story in this book, but I loved many and liked the rest.

If you’re a fan of speculative fiction, pick this one up!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Transphobia and violence against trans people

• Dementia (having a loved one suffer from it)

• Depression (acute metaphorical description of suffering from it)

• Addiction/alcoholism (recovering from it)

• PTSD

His Dark Materials Trilogy

Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Knopf for Young Readers
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title.

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TL;DR Review

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!

For you if: You like fantasy novels that are perfect for literally all ages.

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Full Review

“In fact, these possibility collapses happen at the level of elementary particles, but they happen in just the same way: one moment several things are possible, the next moment only one thing happens, and the rest don't exist. Except that other worlds have sprung into being, on which they did happen.”

I honestly can’t believe I waited until I was a whole adult to read His Dark Materials. It’s one of those series I’ve always meant to read but just never got around to — until now, when a friend convinced me (and just in time to wait anxiously for the last season of the HBO adaptation!).

These books — The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass — are really such a delight. They feel classic and timeless and yet also super relevant and modern; they could have been written this year and not in the mid-90s. They’re fun and whimsical (note character names that roll of the tongue with joy, like Serafina Pekkala and Iorek Byrnison), but also have a wide scope and great depth. I think they’re technically middle grade, but you could have convinced me they were written for any age range; their subject matter ranges from magic to original sin to elementary particles. All while feeling like a grand storybook adventure.

I will say that the third book sprawled a lot more than the first two, which could be a good or less-good thing depending on your worldbuilding preferences. Personally, I liked how imaginative it was and loved the book. But if you prefer tighter worlds, just know that going in.

The last thing I’ll say is if you have the chance to listen to the audiobooks, do it! They’re produced with a full cast, but not the way you usually hear it with a different narrator per chapter. Instead, each character’s narrator reads that character’s dialogue in scene, almost like you’re listening to a play. It feels classic and really brings everything to life. I loved them.

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Content Warnings

• Kidnapping and child abuse

• Child death

Noor

Author: Nnedi Okorafor
Publisher: Daw Books
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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and humanity in a near-future Nigeria.

Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt...natural, and that's putting it lightly. Her parents spent most of the days before she was born praying for her peaceful passing because even in-utero she was wrong. But she lived. Then came the car accident years later that disabled her even further. Yet instead of viewing her strange body the way the world views it, as freakish, unnatural, even the work of the devil, AO embraces all that she is: A woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations. And then one day she goes to her local market and everything goes wrong.

Once on the run, she meets a Fulani herdsman named DNA and the race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria begins. In a world where all things are streamed, everyone is watching the reckoning of the murderess and the terrorist and the saga of the wicked woman and mad man unfold. This fast-paced, relentless journey of tribe, destiny, body, and the wonderland of technology revels in the fact that the future sometimes isn't so predictable. Expect the unaccepted.

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TL;DR Review

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!

For you if: You are looking for more disability rep in sci-fi.

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Full Review

Thank you, DAW Books, for the electronic advanced copy of this book. I am a huge fan of Nnedi Okorafor — her novel Who Fears Death is a true standout — so I am always excited to read her new work. While this one wasn’t my favorite of hers, I definitely liked it, and I think it does some really great stuff.

The story is set in a future Africa, where a giant, ongoing storm (like the red eye on Jupiter) feeds the planet’s energy sources, making it the most commercially coveted area in the world. It’s about a girl named AO, which she likes to say stands for Artificial Organism. Born disabled, AO has chosen to embrace technological augmentations seen as unnatural by the rest of society in order to live a fuller life. A cataclysmic event in the beginning of the book sends her on the run from the Corporation and toward the heart of the storm.

This book is short and reads fast at 224 pages, but it manages to offer a ton of commentary on privacy, environmentalism, and ableism. I love Okorafor’s storytelling style, which is unapologetically rooted in Nigerian traditions, even if it leads some Westernized readers to say this or that thing (pacing, dialogue, etc) “just felt off.” This one is no exception. I think it’s more than worth the couple of hours it will take you to read.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Animal death/cruelty

• Suicidal thoughts

• Ableism

• Violence

• PTSD

The Bone Shard Emperor (The Drowning Empire, #2)

Author: Andrea Stewart
Publisher: Orbit
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

***Description is spoiler for The Bone Shard Daughter***

The Emperor is Dead. Long live the Emperor.

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the north-east of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force.

Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga — the powerful magicians of legend — have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace.

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TL;DR Review

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!

For you if: You like fantasy trilogies set in sprawling other worlds (and read the first book).

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Full Review

I’ve been waiting for The Bone Shard Emperor ever since I read The Bone Shard Daughter last year. (Thank you, Orbit, for the e-ARC! It comes out November 23.) This one has all the same great world-building, imagination, and excitement, and the ending was so good.

TBSE picks up pretty much right where TBSD leaves off. No spoilers for either book here, but I will say that this one turns its attention to the question of the Alanga in a way that I was SO ready for. It’s essentially tackling a whole new mystery, so there was a lot of information and continued world-building in the first half, plus a whole new stretch of character arcs (that I was at first a little skeptical of but am now on board for). So it started a bit slow, but I wasn’t mad about it.

The ending, though, is where this book really shines. Can I just say that Andrea Stewart knows how to RAISE THE STAKES? Just when you think the situation can’t get any more complicated or complex…it does. So many pieces in play, so well woven together.

I’m hooked and so intrigued about how this is all going to get resolved. Third book, where are you?

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Animal cruelty

• Body horror/gore