The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy

Author: S.A. Chakraborty
Publisher: Harper Voyager
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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

Bestselling author S. A. Chakraborty's acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy gets expanded with this new compilation of stories from before, during, and after the events of The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold, all from the perspective of characters both beloved and hated, and even those without a voice in the novels. The River of Silver gathers material both seen and new—including a special coda fans will need to read—making this the perfect complement to those incredible novels.

Now together in one place, these stories of Daevabad enrich a world already teeming with magic and wonder. Explore this magical kingdom, hidden from human eyes. A place where djinn live and thrive, fight and love. A world where princes question their power, and powerful demons can help you...or destroy you.

A prospective new queen joins a court whose lethal history may overwhelm her own political savvy...

An imprisoned royal from a fallen dynasty and a young woman wrenched from her home cross paths in an enchanted garden…

A pair of scouts stumble upon a secret in a cursed winter wood that will turn over their world...

From Manizheh's first steps towards rebellion to adventures that take place after The Empire of Gold, this is a must-have collection for those who can't get enough of Nahri, Ali, and Dara and all that unfolded around them.

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TL;DR Review

The River of Silver is nothing less than a gift to Daevabad lovers, from the bottom of S.A. Chakraborty’s heart. I loved being back in this world.

For you if: You read and loved the Daevabad trilogy.

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Full Review

S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad trilogy is one of my favorites. And what a joy it was to be back in this world, with these characters!

The River of Silver is a collection of supplementary stories and chapters set before, during, and after The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold. And while Chakraborty gives a heads up about timeline and spoilers at the start of each one, I think you’re best off reading this collection after the whole main trilogy.

There’s nothing revolutionary here, nothing that really changes anything, but it was a delight to get to know some of the characters a little bit better, see some of the before-times and in-between moments in detail, and even read an alternative epilogue. I especially loved the chance to get more Muntadhir and Jamshid (although I wish we could have had some steamy scenes lol — pls send fics 😉).

I ended up listening to most of these stories via audiobook; they were the perfect comforting companion as I worked on a sewing project. If you loved the Daevabad trilogy like I did, pick this one up!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Murder, war, and violence

• Homophobia

• Death of a parent

Arca (The Five Queendoms, #2)

Author: G.R. Macallister
Publisher: Saga
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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 a spoiler for Scorpica***

Return to the Five Queendoms in the sequel to Scorpica, a sweeping epic fantasy that Rebecca Roanhorse called “ambitious and engaging,” in which a centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born.

The Drought of Girls has ended, but the rift it broke open between the Queendoms is not so easily healed. Political tensions roil the senate of Paxim, where Queen Heliane vows to make her son Paulus the nation’s first ruling King or die trying. Scorpican troops amass on the border of Arca, ready to attack. And within Arca itself, its young, unready queen finds her court a nest of vipers and her dreams besieged by a mysterious figure with unknown intentions.

As iron and magic clash on the battlefield and powerful women scheme behind the scenes, danger and violence abound. Can anyone stop chaos from ripping the Queendoms apart?

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TL;DR Review

Arca is the second book in the Five Queendoms series, and I think it was even stronger than book one (Scorpica). I’m definitely enjoying these enough to want the next book!

For you if: You like sweeping epic fantasy with lots of characters, geographies, and plotlines.

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Full Review

Arca is book two of G.R. Macallister’s Five Queendoms series. It’s the sequel to Scorpica, which I read last year and liked enough to keep going. I’m happy to report that Arca is even better. It’s going to be tricky to review it without including any spoilers for book one, but here goes.

The Five Queendoms series has been called a “matriarchal Game of Thrones,” and while nothing is truly like Game of Thrones, the comparison isn’t totally off. There are (you guessed it) five queendoms at play in this world, many people are vying for the crowns, and the books jump between the POVs of many different characters across all of those realms. It’s a sprawling, true epic fantasy. It’s also matriarchal, but not in a utopic sense — in fact, the men in this world are treated pretty darn badly (kind of like women in GOT, but thankfully without the sexual violence). At the start of the series, the Drought of Girls begins — no girls are born for basically an entire generation — which you can imagine causes quite a bit of chaos and political unrest.

The execution of all this wasn’t terrible in Scorpica, but it was a little rocky. But Macallister really found her groove here in Arca, and the structure felt much smoother, especially as it related to POV switches and time jumps. That gave it more momentum in a good way. I also loved the doomed romance plotline in this book. Oh, my heart.

I don’t know how many books we’re going to get in this series (five, I’d presume, but I don’t think that’s certain), but there will be a book three next year. After liking but not loving Scorpica, I wanted to read Arca before I decided whether I’d continue with the series. Now I can definitely say I’m excited for book three!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• War and violence

• Death and grief

• Pregnancy and childbirth

• Animal death

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)

Author: Shannon Chakraborty
Publisher: Harper Voyager
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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

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power… and the price might be your very soul.

Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

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TL;DR Review

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is an adventurous, swashbuckling, gloriously fun time with an incredible cast of characters. It’s the start of a series (but feels like a standalone) and I can’t wait for more in this world!

For you if: You like pirate stories (especially when the pirate is a badass 40-year-old Muslim woman).

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Full Review

Shannon Chakraborty is a favorite author of mine, so I’ve been looking forward to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi ever since it was announced. A pirate fantasy featuring a middle-aged woman main character? Say less!! And y’all, it does NOT disappoint.

At the heart of this story, of course, we have Amina al-Sirafi, a sexually liberated Muslim retired pirate in her 40s currently focused on raising her daughter. But when the head of a powerful and wealthy family tracks her down and offers Amina a life-changing sum to rescue her kidnapped granddaughter, Amina can’t refuse. She gathers her crew — including Dalila, poison master and Christian refugee; Tinbu, her first mate who really loves his cat; Majed, master navigator who worked with Amina’s father before her — and sets out. Oh, and did I mention that Amina was married to a super-hot demon?

This book is the start of a new series, but it could read like a standalone. Needless to say, I loved it. As you can tell, it stands out on its incredible cast of lovable characters alone. But it was also a very fun read; it’s definitely adventurous, but it’s also not as episodic as I expected from the title. There’s plenty of time to get to know these characters as they prepare to set off. And a super heartwarming revelation at the end that just sealed the deal of me loving it.

Also of note, this one was fab on audio! It kept me company as I peeled wallpaper in my house for hours, lol. Can’t wait for more books with these characters in this world!!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Violence, death

• Body horror

• Transphobia

• Threat of sexual assault

Lucy by the Sea (Amgash, #4)

Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House
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 Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout comes a poignant, pitch perfect novel about a former couple in lockdown together--and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart.

With her trademark spare, crystalline prose--a voice infused with "intimate, fragile, desperate humanness" (The Washington Post)--Elizabeth Strout once again turns her exquisitely-tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, this time following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton and Oh William! through the early days of the pandemic.

As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and longtime friend, William. For the next several months, it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. They will not emerge unscathed.

Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear, struggles, and isolation that come with life in a global pandemic, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we're apart--the pain of a beloved daughter's suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love. "We all live with people--and places--and things--that we have given great weight to," Lucy says. "But we are weightless, in the end."

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TL;DR Review

Lucy By the Sea is another cozy, resonant novel by Elizabeth Strout. While I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped, watching Lucy process the pandemic does feel almost therapeutic for we who lived it.

For you if: You love Elizabeth Strout novels (and have read the other Amgash books).

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Full Review

Lucy By the Sea is the fourth book in Elizabeth Strout’s Amgash series, which features the beloved protagonist Lucy Barton. I’ve heard from many people that this is their favorite Amgash book. While I still think Anything Is Possible was my favorite, Lucy By the Sea delivers yet another of Strout’s signature quiet, resonant reading experiences.

This one follows Lucy and William through the COVID-19 lockdown; William convinces Lucy to leave NYC for a seaside cottage in Maine, and we re-experience all the anxiety and turmoil from those early pandemic days alongside them. I was afraid this would feel triggering, but for me at least, I found that watching Lucy process these feelings was surprisingly therapeutic. And of course, this is Elizabeth Strout, so the book is also about relationships, growth, and the emotions that make us human. I particularly loved getting to know her daughters so much better. (Also, there is a small crossover with Olive Kitteridge, which was fun.)

While I did enjoy this one, I think I may have read it too soon after Oh William! to truly love it. Without getting into spoilers, SEA did feel like it reversed some of the choices Strout made in WILLIAM, to its detriment in my opinion. Lucy’s extreme dependence on anyone but herself also started to get to me. But at the same time, she’s such a kind person experiencing relatable things, and Strout writes relationships and interiority so well, that Lucy has also started to feel like a friend.

If Strout writes more Amgash books, I’ll gladly read them.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• COVID pandemic

• Death and grief

• Miscarriage and infertility

• Infidelity

• Eating disorder (minor)

A Day of Fallen Night

Author: Samantha Shannon
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

The stunning, standalone prequel to the New York Times bestselling The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose.

To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.

The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate.

When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.

Intricate and epic, Samantha Shannon sweeps readers back to the world of A Priory of the Orange Tree, showing us a course of events that shaped it for generations to come.

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TL;DR Review

A Day of Fallen Night is a fantastically rendered standalone fantasy novel. It has everything you could want: dragons, queendoms, mystery, battles, politics, and multiple POVs spanning four continents.

For you if: You like (very sapphic) epic fantasy and don’t mind very long books.

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Full Review

I, like so many others, loved The Priory of the Orange Tree, and so I, like so many others, was absolutely HYPED to learn that Samantha Shannon had given us a standalone prequel. I’m happy to say that I loved A Day of Fallen Night just as much, if not more. It is LONG (like 900 pages, lol), but it was worth it!

DAY takes place about 200 years before PRIORY, and it’s a true standalone — honestly, I think you could read either one first and enjoy them both just as much. This one spans all four continents of this world and has four main characters: Tunuva, a member of the Priory; Glorian, princess of Inys; Dumai, a godsinger in the East, and Wulf, a member of the King of Hroth’s house guard — all of whom are more connected than they think. When the fire under the earth births horrors not seen in centuries, it throws the whole world into chaos. (And yes, this book is EXTREMELY sapphic.)

How do they stack up? Well, DAY is slower-paced than PRIORY; there are a lot more political plotlines. But I didn’t dislike that; in fact, I think I fell in love with the characters of DAY a bit more for all the time we spent with them. Tunuva may have been my personal favorite, but honestly I loved them all. Also, I’m happy to say that DAY’s ending is better paced than PRIORY, which many agreed felt a bit rushed.

This book is not for fantasy beginners; in true epic-fantasy style, there are lots of characters, places, and more to keep track of. But if that is your thing — and especially if you enjoyed PRIORY — I think you’ll love this one too.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death and grief

• Death of a parent

• Death of a child

• Violence, blood, war

• Pregnancy and childbirth

• Animal death

Winter (Seasonal Quartet, #2)

Author: Ali Smith
Publisher: Ali Smith
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

Winter. Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. And now Art's mother is seeing things. Come to think of it, Art's seeing things himself.

When four people, strangers and family, converge on a fifteen-bedroom house in Cornwall for Christmas, will there be enough room for everyone?

Winter. It makes things visible. Ali Smith's shapeshifting Winter casts a warm, wise, merry and uncompromising eye over a post-truth era in a story rooted in history and memory and with a taproot deep in the evergreens, art and love.

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TL;DR Review

Winter is another quiet but profound installment of Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet. I’m once again awed by how she does so much with so little. Can’t wait for Spring!

For you if: You like a short book that begs you to take your time.

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Full Review

Winter had me hooked from the very first line, “God was dead: to begin with.” Many readers will recognize this as a spoof of the opening line of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (“Marley was dead: to begin with”), which is one of my favorite books of all time. What a way to set the stage for this quiet, focused story about perception and family and climate change and immigration and connection and the “post-truth” era.

At the center of the novel is a man named Art, who runs a (disingenuous) blog called Art in Nature. After his girlfriend, Charlotte, dumps him right before he was supposed to bring her home for Christmas, he meets a girl named Lux at a bus stop and pays her to come and play the role of Charlotte. They arrive to find Art’s mother — who is secretly hallucinating a floating baby head — in the dark with no food in the house. They call Art’s estranged aunt, a former nuclear protester, to come help.

I sort of wish I had read this book in December, but it was still a delight. There are so many layers here in such a short book, not least of which is the theme of visitations and spectres recalling A Christmas Carol again. I loved Lux: she’s near-homeless, an immigrant, arriving unexpectedly, gluing everyone together — more hints of Christmas. But it’s really not a Christmas book; it’s really about these characters and their interiorities and relationships amidst the broader context of England’s political landscape at the time (post-Brexit), all of which Ali Smith writes so well.

I know Winter doesn’t tend to be most people’s favorite of the Seasonal Quartet, but I might have liked it even more than Autumn — if only for its connection to my dear old Scrooge. Can’t wait to continue on to Spring!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Xenophobia

• Mental illness

• Death

• Body horror

• Adult/minor relationship

• Death of parent

Stone Blind

Author: Natalie Haynes
Publisher: Harper 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

A fresh take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.

They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.

The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.

When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge--on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.

Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon...

In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman--injured by a powerful man--is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa's story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.

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TL;DR Review

Stone Blind is another tragic, polyphonic work of art from Natalie Haynes — this time focused on one storyline (Medusa’s). Fans of A Thousand Ships will like this!

For you if: You like feminist Greek mythology retellings and books with multiple narrators.

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Full Review

I loved Natalie Haynes’ Womens-Prize-nominated A Thousand Ships — I still think it has one of the best opening lines I’ve read — so when I heard she had a Medusa novel coming out, I was HYPED. Friends, I am happy to report that it delivered.

Stone Blind is indeed Medusa’s story (a mortal Gorgon raised by her sisters, assaulted by Poseidon in Athene’s temple, turned into a monster by Athene in revenge, decapitated by Perseus and carried around as a murderous head), but it’s also broader than that. Haynes uses her gift for writing a polyphonic chorus to zoom in and out, back and forth, to and fro. We get the wider scope of the story, how it balloons out of the gods’ squabbles, how Perseus got there, etc. In that way, those of us who loved A Thousand Ships get a touch of the same magic, but this time applied to a more focused storyline.

I will say that I had been expecting a bit more time in Medusa’s head, but it totally works, and you can tell Haynes had a ton of fun writing these characters. Zeus and Hera are especially entertaining. I also appreciated how this wasn’t exactly a recasting of Medusa’s story where she’s actually good and everyone else is bad, but more of an examination of how perspective changes things. For example, at first, Perseus feels sympathetic, but seen through new eyes (heh), his privilege and self-centeredness becomes more obvious.

I’m not sure this feels as prizeworthy as A Thousand Ships did; there were some moments that felt a little cheesy or on the nose. But ultimately I quite enjoyed it — well-done, quick, fun read from a favorite author. Can’t go wrong!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Rape (not graphic)

• Murder and violence

The Sun Walks Down

Author: Fiona McFarlane
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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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 September 1883, the South Australian town of Fairly huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the whole town is intent on finding him. As they search the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly - newlyweds, landowners, farmers, mothers, artists, Indigenous trackers, cameleers, children, schoolteachers, widows, maids, policemen - explore their own relationships with the complex landscape unsettling history of the Flinders Ranges.

The colonial Australia of The Sun Walks Down is unfamiliar, multicultural, and noisy with opinions, arguments, longings and terrors. It's haunted by many gods - the sun among them, rising and falling on each day that Denny could be found, or lost forever.

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TL;DR Review

The Sun Walks Down is a super atmospheric, polyphonic novel set in 1800s Australia about a boy lost in the desert and how the members of his town respond. I liked it a lot.

For you if: You like books where the setting becomes a character in and of itself.

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Full Review

Thank you to FSG for the review copy of this book! Its awesome blurbs (and the fact that FSG put so much detail/budget into the ARCs) convinced me to pick it up, and I really enjoyed it.

The Sun Walks Down is interesting because it’s one of those books where the setting is the main character. It’s told through the voices of probably a dozen different members of a late-1800s colonial town in South Australia after a young, neurodivergent boy named Denny goes missing. That includes his family (I think his badass and queer-coded sister, Cissy, was my favorite), but also the police constable’s new wife, a painter visiting the area, Denny himself, and more. The story looks at not just how the community responds to the crisis, but also racism, colonization, class, and more.

One thing to know going in is that this is a slower-paced book and asks for your patience. The 7-day structure moves the story forward, not the prose — that lingers with the members of the town. So if you’re primarily interested in books where you’re invested in individual characters, this may not be for you. That said, it does what it’s trying to do very well.

Finally, I also listened to this one on audio as I read along, and thought it was performed very well. It had me entranced behind the wheel of my car a few times!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Racism (late-1800s style), particularly against Aboriginal Australians

• Animal death

• Infidelity

• Sexual content (minor)

A Monster Calls

Author: Patrick Ness
Publisher: Walker 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

An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting - he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd - whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself - Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

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TL;DR Review

A Monster Calls is a magical and deeply moving early-YA novel about grief in the wake of a parent’s death and the range of very human emotions that come with it. I sobbed, dear reader. Sobbed!

For you if: You like beautiful books that make you cry.

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Full Review

Well, I am very late to the party on this book. It won the Carnegie Medal (and many other awards!) in 2012, for Pete’s sake. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of it until my sister happened to read it and shove it in my hands. Sisters are so great. Especially mine, because as many of you already know, this book is breathtaking.

The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.

A Monster Calls is a late middle grade/early YA novel written by Patrick Ness and inspired by an idea from the late Siobhan Dowd, a literary titan who died of cancer in 2007. The illustrations were done by Jim Kay, whose work you may recognize from the watercolor editions of the first five Harry Potter books. And the audiobook is read, phenomenally, by none other than Jason Isaacs. (I mean, what a team!!) The story itself is about a 13-year-old boy named Connor whose mother is terminally ill. One night, at 12:07 AM, he’s visited by a monster, though not the one he expects. And it’s not there to hurt him; it’s there for the truth.

I can’t imagine a more devastatingly beautiful story about grief and love and the range of emotions that accompanies them. When I tell you how hard I sobbed!! These are the kinds of books that heal the soul. (Although I can also imagine this might be quite hard to read if it hits close to your real experiences). Patrick Ness has given us validation of all the feelings we have in grief — even those we’d rather not admit to — and a heartfelt, wise, poignant reflection of what it means to be human and love others.

I had borrowed it from the library, but bought myself a used copy of the original hardcover edition as soon as I finished it. I just knew I needed to own a copy. Trust me — follow my lead!!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death of a parent

• Cancer

• Grief

• Bullying

Oh William! (Amgash, #3)

Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House
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

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.

So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout’s “perfect attunement to the human condition.” There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart.

At the heart of this story is the indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. “This is the way of life,” Lucy says: “the many things we do not know until it is too late.”

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TL;DR Review

The third in Elizabeth Strout’s Amgash series, Oh William! is another quiet but beautiful little novel. I loved how reflective this one was, both similar to and different from the first two.

For you if: You like books about relationships, and those that get really interior with their first-person narrators.

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Full Review

Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, Oh William! is the third book in Elizabeth Strout’s Amgash series. If you’ve read Elizabeth Strout before, you know what to expect with this one: a quiet novel that beautifully explores humanity by examining the motivations and relationships between lifelike characters.

Oh William! returns us into the mind and perception of the first Amgash book’s narrator, Lucy Barton. In this book, she’s a bit older; her daughters are adults, and she just lost her second (and much loved) husband. Then her first husband, William, is left by his new wife and finds out his recently deceased mother had a secret daughter before he was born. He asks her to accompany him on a trip to learn more about his half-sister, and she agrees.

I loved the opportunity to come back to a character we know and love and watch her reflect on her own life. Lucy has so much more self-awareness now, but she gains even more of it throughout the book. I also loved how Strout used the relationship between Lucy and William to explore how those we love, we love. in some way forever, even when they aren’t necessarily good for us anymore. And honestly, I think Strout’s ability to pinpoint what motivates people and how they interact is unmatched by any other writer.

I’ve heard that Lucy by the Sea is many people’s favorite Amgash book. I’m excited to read it next!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Grief

• Death of a parent

• Death of a spouse

• Infidelity

Brotherless Night

Author: V.V. Ganeshananthan
Publisher: Random House
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

Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war subsumes Sri Lanka, her dream takes her on a different path as she watches those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their best friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. She must ask herself: is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?

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TL;DR Review

Brotherless Night is a beautiful and heartbreaking and powerful novel about one girl’s coming-of-age during the Sri Lankan civil war. I absolutely loved it.

For you if: You like books with especially strong first-person narrators.

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Full Review

Random House sent me an early review copy of Brotherless Night (although it’s out now!), and its incredible blurbs (Celest Ng, Brit Bennett) convinced me to bump it to the top of my list. And holy moly, am I glad I did. This one could easily make my list of favorites for 2023.

The prologue starts with an arresting opening line: “I recently sent a letter to a terrorist I used to know.” And that paragraph ends just as powerfully: “I met a lot of these sorts of people when I was younger because I used to be what you would call a terrorist myself.” So begins our time with Sashi, who is older and living in the US now, but telling us her story as it started in 1981 in Jaffna, when she was a teenager and the Sri Lankan civil war was just beginning. She dreams of becoming a doctor, to help people as her grandfather did. And she does — but along the way, anti-Tamil violence costs her family dearly, in more ways than just lives: two of her brothers join the Tamil Tigers, as does a close family friend. Eventually, Sashi herself finds herself drawn into the conflict herself, in ways that I don’t want to spoil but found deeply resonant.

This book was impossible to put down; the prose — or maybe it’s more accurate to say Sashi’s voice — had a momentum that just reached out and gripped me and never let go. But it wasn’t just excellent on a sentence level. This book is tough to read at times, but gorgeous and heartbreaking and powerful throughout. There are no good guys in war, and it’s easy to condemn actions from the outside, but who knows what each of us would do to keep our families safe? Humans are flawed and beautiful and never black and white, and neither are our choices. No matter what, there is strength in those who fight and those who survive.

Get yourself a copy of this one and read it, please.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• War violence, gun violence

• Death of a sibling, spouse, parent

• Blood, medical content

• Rape

• Suicide (hunger strike, suicide bombing)

Hell Bent (Alex Stern, #2)

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Flatiron Books
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 a spoiler for Ninth House***

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.

Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.

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TL;DR Review

Hell Bent was an awesome sequel to Ninth House. I loved diving deeper into these characters and their relationships, all while happily along for the plot ride Leigh Bardugo is famous for.

For you if: You like dark fantasy/academia (and already read Ninth House).

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Full Review

Hell Bent is the long-awaited, much-anticipated sequel to Ninth House. It’s the second book in the Alex Stern trilogy (although until I read this book I totally thought this was a duology 😅) , an adult dark academia/fantasy series about Yale’s secret societies by our queen, Leigh Bardugo.

We knew from Ninth House that this was going to be a wild ride, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. No spoilers here, but I will say that the story picks up a few months after the last book ended. And whereas Ninth House was more of a world/character introduction by way of mystery (“what happened to Darlington?”), Hell Bent is all about deepening our relationship with those characters while we ride along on the unputdownable plot journey Leigh is famous for (“OK, so how do we save him?”).

I loved getting more time with our motley little crew: fierce but loving Mercy; soft but strong Dawes; moral but loyal Turner. I also felt like Alex kept her badass, unapologetic nature while also growing a bit more mature, but in a way that felt organic for us as we’ve gotten to know her. And of course, Leigh’s skill at using a non-linear timeline to keep us engaged and guessing without making things confusing was on full display.

So the good news is that this was totally worth the wait. But the even better news is that it doesn’t look like we’ll have to wait as long between books 2 and 3, because she’s already hard at work on the finale.

And finally, for those of you who’ve already read this, I’ll just say: glow sticks. #IYKYK.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death, violence, and murder

• Drug use/abuse

• Animal death

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Author: Shehan Karunatilaka
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
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

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka.

Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire” (Economist) and rip-roaring state-of-the-nation epic that offers equal parts mordant wit and disturbing, profound truths.

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TL;DR Review

Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is a Sri Lankan ghost story, war story, and just all-around good story.

For you if: You like books where the main character’s voice is strong and distinctive.

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Full Review

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida won this year’s Booker Prize, so I was excited to read it. I didn’t quite know what to expect, and I think that almost made the experience even better. Shehan Karunatilaka’s storytelling skill is on full display in this clever and hard-hitting novel.

The main character is, of course, Maali Almeida, who tells us his business card would read “photographer, gambler, slut.” It’s 1990 in Colombo, deep into the Sri Lankan civil war. At the beginning, he “wakes up” to find that he’s dead, his body floating in a lake, and has seven moons before he needs to go to “the light.” First, of course, unfinished business: returning to his best friend and boyfriend to guide them to his hidden war photographs so that the terrible things he’s seen don’t die with him.

One distinctive thing about this book is that it’s told in second person, but don’t let you put that off. It feels extremely natural, maybe even inevitable, with the story. I’d say it actually makes you feel even more directly inside Maali’s head, and he’s a really fun narrator. He’s actually kind of a terrible person, but funny and ultimately likable (or at least sympathetic). Something else to know: While Maali’s queerness is extremely central to the plot of the book, this book doesn’t necessarily make any kind of statement about queerness; in fact, Karunatilaka has said he modeled Maali after a real-life closeted gay photographer, so that was just always part of his character, which I found interesting.

The arc Karunatilaka creates for Maali’s character, weaving in Sri Lankan folklore and a look at war atrocities along the way, was super engaging and I thought mostly well done. The only part I wasn’t 100% convinced by was the very very end, but I won’t spoil that. Still, it was a small enough factor that it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the book overall.

If you like books with strong main characters, and that mix humor with really heavy topics, pick this one up.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Violence and murder

• Homophobia

• Torture

• Suicide

• Gambling addiction

The Bandit Queens

Author: Parini Shroff
Publisher: Ballentine
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

Geeta's no-good husband disappeared five years ago. She didn't kill him, but everyone thinks she did—no matter how much she protests.

But she soon discovers that being known as a "self-made" widow has some surprising perks. No one messes with her, no one threatens her, and no one tries to control (ahem, marry) her. It's even been good for her business; no one wants to risk getting on her bad side by not buying her jewelry.

Freedom must look good on Geeta, because other women in the village have started asking for her help to get rid of their own no-good husbands...but not all of them are asking nicely.

Now that Geeta's fearsome reputation has become a double-edged sword, she must decide how far to go to protect it, along with the life she's built. Because even the best-laid plans of would-be widows tend to go awry.

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TL;DR Review

The Bandit Queens is a smart, darkly funny novel about a community of women who team up to kill their abusive husbands. It’s equal parts delightful and devastating.

For you if: You like books that manage to tackle hard topics with humor.

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Full Review

The Bandit Queens was such a delight! But also poignant and smart. I really enjoyed it.

The main character is an Indian woman named Greeta, whose husband took off without a word five years ago. Everyone thinks she killed him, despite her protests. She’s a bit lonely but enjoys her freedom, until another woman from her loan group asks Greeta to help her kill her husband, who’s abusive to her and her children. Things spiral from there.

There was actually once a real-life Bandit Queen, whose real name was Phoolan Devi. She was a Robin Hood–like figure who killed her own abusers, and later became an activist and member of Parliament. In this novel, Greeta romanticizes Phoolan’s life and takes inspiration from her, which I thought was clever and interesting.

This book is chock full of dark humor and uses it as a way to critique very terrible things, like severe abuse (physical and sexual), casual cruelty, caste and racial discrimination, patriarchy, and more. It’s almost a comedy of errors. At the same time, it’s a celebration of women’s resilience and strength, and the role friendship and community play in that. It takes a smart author to pull that off, and Shroff is more than up to the task.

Give this a read!!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Domestic abuse / child abuse

• Marital rape

• Sexual assault / attempted rape

• Murder

• Animal cruelty

Heart of the Sun Warrior (The Celestial Kingdom Duology, #2)

Author: Sue Lynn Tan
Publisher: Harper Voyager
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 a spoiler for Daughter of the Moon Goddess***

After her perilous quest to free her mother, Xingyin thrives once more in the tranquility of her home. But her fragile peace is threatened by the discovery of a strange magic on the moon and the unsettling changes in the Celestial Kingdom as the emperor tightens his grip on power. While Xingyin is determined to keep clear of the rising danger, the discovery of a shocking truth spurs her into a treacherous confrontation.

Forced to flee her home once more, Xingyin and her companions venture to unexplored lands of the Immortal Realm, encountering legendary creatures and shrewd monarchs, beloved friends and bitter adversaries. With alliances shifting quicker than the tides, Xingyin has to overcome past grudges and enmities to forge a new path forward, seeking aid where she never imagined she would. As an unspeakable terror sweeps across the realm, Xingyin must uncover the truth of her heart and claw her way through devastation—to rise against this evil before it destroys everything she holds dear, and the worlds she has grown to love ... even if doing so demands the greatest price of all.

The stunning sequel to Daughter of the Moon Goddess delves deeper into beloved Chinese mythology, concluding the epic story of Xingyin—the daughter of Chang'e and the mortal archer, Houyi—as she battles a grave new threat to the realm, in this powerful tale of love, sacrifice, and hope.

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TL;DR Review

Heart of the Sun Warrior is a fun, adventurous sequel to Daughter of the Moon Goddess. While it didn’t blow me away (mostly because the love triangle didn’t quite work for me), I did enjoy it.

For you if: You like an adventure, and/or want to read more fantasy based on Chinese mythology.

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Full Review

Heart of the Sun Warrior is the sequel to Daughter of the Moon Goddess and the conclusion of the Celestial Kingdom duology, a Chinese fantasy drama (epic fantasy rooted in Chinese mythology). Although it didn’t blow me away, I did enjoy it and the duology overall.

I won’t give spoilers for the first book, but suffice to say that this one picks up only a short time after that one ends. From there, a new adventure quickly begins. That’s one thing I liked about this duology: Each book feels like a complete story. This time around, Xingyin knows herself and her strengths better; she’s still headstrong, and she still rushes into situations a bit too quickly, but it was nice to get to know her as a more confident person.

One strength of this duology is the prose. Sue Lynn Tan writes gorgeous sentences, and these books are lush and cinematic. That matches up nicely with the kind of action-packed, something-for-everyone story. I also loved getting to know the legend of the Moon Goddess through this lens!

The reason this fell a bit short for me, however, is just that I don’t like love triangles. Sometimes I can be convinced, but I never quite got there on this one. I think it could have benefited from more character development for the secondary characters in the book; they’re all sort of flat except for Xingyin herself. Although part of this may also be my own inexperience and naive reactions to a more Eastern storytelling style.

Still, if you find yourself drawn to this one, I’d say definitely give it a shot!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Death (including death of a child)

• Severe grief

• War, blood, and violence

The New Life

Author: Tom Crewe
Publisher: Scribner
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

Two Victorian marriages, two dangerous love affairs, one extraordinary partnership . . .

London, 1894. After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John Addington, married to Catherine, has met Frank, a working-class printer.

Meanwhile Henry Ellis's wife Edith has fallen in love with Angelica — and Angelica wants Edith all to herself.

When in 1894 John and Henry decide to write a revolutionary book together, intended to challenge convention and the law, they are both caught in relationships stalked by guilt and shame. Yet they share a vision of a better world, one that will expand possibilities for men and women everywhere.

Their daring book threatens to throw John and Henry, and all those around them, into danger. How far should they go to win personal freedoms? And how high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living?

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TL;DR Review

The New Life is a well-written and deeply emotional novel about experiences of queerness in late-1800s London. I loved it.

For you if: You like deeply imagined characters who make questionable choices.

Not for you if: You don’t like sexual content or prose occasionally on the flowery side.

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Full Review

I picked up The New Life after seeing it on a few most-anticipated lists for 2023, and wowza, am I glad I did! What a well-written, deeply emotional novel.

The book takes place in London in the late 1800s Two men have teamed up to write a book making a scientific argument against the criminalization of homosexuality. John is a closeted, married gay man who begins a passionate affair with a man from a different social class. Henry is a quiet but prolific proponent of “the new life,” a future where marriage is redefined. He’s married to a woman from the same movement, and theirs is anything but a traditional marriage. The book they’re writing is going well, until Oscar Wilde’s sodomy trial happens — when taking a stand goes from feeling clear and right to questionable and risky.

One thing I’ll say right off the bat is that this book has a lot of sexual content — from literally the first page. But there’s a big difference between sex for sex’s sake, and what Crewe does here, which is use it to deepen our understanding of these characters and what motivates them. Honestly, I found it impressive.

I also thought that Crewe wrote confrontation scenes in a really expert way. Whenever the characters were in direct conflict, we got so much insight into their psyches, but in a way that felt like we were learning about them just as they were learning about themselves. It was particularly heart-wrenching and just very well done.

I will say that the prose can be flowery at times. I happen to like that, but I know it’s not for everyone. All in all, I found this to be a really excellent novel about queerness and sexual exploration, plus the tension between being true to yourself and the unintended consequences on those around you.

Please read this!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Sexual content

• Homophobia

• Suicidal thoughts (minor)

Anything Is Possible

Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher:
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

Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother's happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author's celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.

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TL;DR Review

Elizabeth Strout has done it again. Anything Is Possible is a beautiful and tender of a portrait of a community told through the eyes of its people, one story at a time.

For you if: You like linked short stories and rich characters.

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Full Review

I haven’t read all of her backlist yet, but I still feel like I can say that Elizabeth Strout is at her best writing books just like this: short stories about different people in the same town. It’s what made Olive Kitteridge the success it was, and it’s what makes this one sparkle with life and squeeze your heart in the absolute best way.

Anything Is Possible s a sort of sequel to My Name is Lucy Barton. It introduces us to many of the people in Lucy’s remote hometown of Amgash, Illinois, through nine linked short stories. Lucy is mentioned throughout, as she’s just published a memoir, and she makes an appearance in one of them, told through her brother’s perspective. She’s a link between these characters, but she’s not the star of the show: they are, and to a possibly even greater extent, Amgash itself is.

I have no idea how Elizabeth Strout manages to write characters that could just walk off the page, fully formed. But it might be even more impressive how she’s able to use them to paint a much larger picture of a place and its community. Each of these characters’ stories broke my heart — their lives have not been easy, and it made some of them more tender and some of them harder. There is pain, humor, and love in these pages that really sticks with you.

I’m excited to go back to Amgash with Oh, William! next month!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Fatphobia and body shaming

• Homophobia

• PTSD from sexual assault

Treacle Walker

Author: Alan Garner
Publisher: Fourth Estate (not published in the US)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from Blackwells, an independent bookstore in the UK that ships to the US for free.

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

Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth and folklore and an exploration of the fluidity of time, vivid storytelling that brilliantly illuminates an introspective young mind trying to make sense of everything around him.

'Ragbone! Ragbone! Any rags! Pots for rags! Donkey stone!'

Joe looked up from his comic and lifted his eye patch. There was a white pony in the yard. It was harnessed to a cart, a flat cart, with a wooden chest on it. A man was sitting at a front corner of the cart, holding the reins. His face was creased. He wore a long coat and a floppy high-crowned hat, with hair straggling beneath, and a leather bag was slung from his shoulder across his hip.

Joe Coppock squints at the world with his lazy eye. He reads his comics, collects birds' eggs and treasures his marbles, particularly his prized dobbers. When Treacle Walker appears off the Cheshire moor one day - a wanderer, a healer - an unlikely friendship is forged and the young boy is introduced to a world he could never have imagined.

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TL;DR Review

Well, that was weird. Definitely smart and imaginative and impressive — just a bit over my head. Still, it was fun to read and puzzle through!

For you if: You don’t mind books that challenge the reader and get a bit out there.

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Full Review

I’m not sure I have a ton to add that other (particularly US) reviewers have already said: This book is quirky and imaginative and definitely goes a bit over the head — although that seems to be on purpose.

This super-short book is about a young boy named Joe who meets a mysterious, quirky man named Treacle Walker who offers pots and pans in exchange for old rags and bones. The pot Joe chooses has a bit of magic in it that opens just one of his eyes to a more mysterious, deeper world around him. The book bobs and weaves and jumps and twirls and gives us a unique take on how childhood gives way to experience.

I read through this in one sitting, then spent some time on the author’s websites reading his “Treacle Tangents.” I recommend doing it that way rather than reading the tangents as you go, because I needed to get a better grasp on the overall themes before the tangents made sense. But once I did, I had a good time clicking through them.

TLDR, even though this probably went over my head a bit, I still had fun reading and puzzling through it, and it made for a really great #BookerOfTheMonth discussion!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• None

The Shadow of the Wind

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves
Publisher: Penguin Books
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

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

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TL;DR Review

The Shadow of the Wind is a beautifully told, immersive, wonderfully bibliophilic mystery that takes place in Barcelona in 1945. I loved it.

For you if: You like books that hint at magic.

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Full Review

Despite the fact that The Shadow of the Wind has been recommended to me time and time again, I went in knowing very little about it except that it was a book about books. Well, it is that, but also so much more, and I (predictably) loved it.

The story takes place in Barcelona in 1945, shortly after the end of wartime. As a child, the main character, Daniel, visits the Cemetary of Forgotten Books with his father, a rare-book seller, and stumbles upon a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. That sets off a chain of events that lasts into Daniel’s young adulthood as he tries to learn more about the mysterious Carax, aided by a few friends and haunted by a chilling figure intent on stopping him.

While I’d say this book is first and foremost a mystery, it really has something for everyone: romance, humor, revenge, doomed love, hints of magic, and (of course) a story centered on books. The storytelling by Zafón and translation by Lucia Graves are just incredible — I was transported and enthralled. It’s not a quick read, but it was immersive, and it was the perfect companion over a few weeks while my life was particularly chaotic. (Also, the audiobook was very well done!).

This is just one book in the Cemetary of Forgotten Books quartet, which apparently can be read in any order. If you’ve read them, let me know which one you think I should read next!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Police brutality

• Domestic abuse (off page)

• Sexual harassment

• Death of a parent

• Incest (accidental)

The Witch's Heart

Author: Genevieve Gornichec
Publisher: Ace Books
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

When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.

Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she's foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.

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TL;DR Review

The Witch’s Heart is a great addition to the feminist mythology retelling subgenre. Genevieve Gornichec gives Angrboda so much richness and depth, and I read it in a day.

For you if: You liked Madeline Miller’s Circe.

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Full Review

If you know me, you know I love mythology retellings about often-overlooked women. Up until now, most of my experience in that subgenre has been with Greek mythology: Circe, The Silence of the Girls, A Thousand Ships, etc. The Witch’s Heart, on the other hand, is Norse mythology — and I hope it will be the first of many Norse retellings I read.

This book is about Angrboda: thrice-burned witch, wife of the trickster Loki, and mother of the monsters fated to help defeat the gods in the great war Ragnarök. She sounds badass, right? Well, she is, but in The Witch’s Heart, she is so much more than that, too. Genevieve Gornichec gives her tenderness, depth, and humanity. She’s a woman who just wants to live in the woods in peace (and not burned at the stake again), a mother who just wants to raise and protect her children, and eventually, a witch determined to challenge fate itself. I really, really enjoyed it.

It feels kind of reductionist to compare this book to Madeline Miller’s Circe (keeping in mind, too, that I read Circe years ago), but it also feels like an accessible comparison, and I want more people to read this one. Both women are side characters in traditional mythology, and both authors have expanded and nuance-ified (yes I just made that word up) their lives and stories in interesting, engaging ways. Both books also have beautiful, storytelling-style prose.

Finally, a tip: There’s an appendix in the back that gives an overview of the characters, places, and races mentioned in the story, and I actually decided to read through it before I read the book itself. Since I knew actually nothing about Norse mythology before this, I found it really helpful and I think I enjoyed and appreciated the book more for it. That said, if you like to know absolutely nothing nada zilch about the plot before you read, then I’d say skip this step, or read it after.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Pregnancy (and pregnancy complications) and birth

• Violence, torture

• Infidelity