Books and other thoughts

Not only that, but there is a spin off series about a totally different character but who also gets an alien in their mind. I need to read The Rise of Io and The Fall of Io as well.

–The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu started April 27, 2026 and finished May 1, 2026- 4/5 stars. This book has a misleading plot summary. There is hardly any mention of either faction that they are going to leave earth. The Genjix have been building towards reproduction of their own kind which they succeed at. Should have put that as part of the plot summary. You know, it’s interesting, from how the first book ends I would have thought that Jill and Roen would not be together. It seems like in the years between the first and second book, they got together, Roen got her pregnant, they got married, Roen left for a special mission Tao ordered, and then they had a falling out. Personally I think if you were conscripted into fighting an alien war you should not start a family. After all, Jill is not with her son. He is being raised by her parents. They are separated in this book but it’s clear that they still care for each other. Also, quite interesting that Jill is a political figure now. I guess that was part of her mission as a host. This book was still quite interesting to read. I still enjoyed it. We get three stories to follow. Jill, Roen, and Enzo. Enzo is part of the Genjix who is essentially made from eugenics. He thinks highly of himself and such. Made to be the perfect specimen after all. Very determined to prove himself worthy and show how great he is. The most interesting part of this book was the ending. Even though I didn’t really like Roen all that much, the fact that he dies is kind of depressing. What was weird is that then Tao goes into his son, Cameron. That’s not going to help things. I need to read the third book. I just have to find it at a library somewhere. It’s stupid to just buy the third book of a trilogy. The fact that it's called The Rebirths of Tao makes me think that Roen gets revived or something. 

–Spread Me by Sarah Bailey started May 1, 2026 and finished May 2, 2026- 4/5 stars. You know based on the author's blurbs on this book I thought this book would be more horny and depraved. Sometimes you got to read books that make you question the author’s sanity. Like I did with Sister, Maiden, Monster. Anyway, I don’t want to kink/fetish shame Kinsey, the main character, but her fetish is certainly an interesting one. She gets off on viruses. I guess she signed up to be at this middle of nowhere outpost so she wouldn’t be tempted and people wouldn’t know. The story begins with her and her team pulling in a specimen found in the desert. It is revealed to be a lichen/virus and it’s horny for Kinsey and Kinsey is horny for it as well. One by one her team/friends gets taken over and die from the virus. It’s very horror movie like with the thing chasing her around at the end being like “Look look isn’t this what you want? I’m so horny for you and I know you are so horny for me!” Kinsey naturally being afraid and upset that her friends are dead fucking escapes into the desert. She comes back though because she is that into viruses. I guess she will spend her remaining time fucking the thing in the desert. What is she going to do about food? By the time the ending rolled around she hadn’t eaten in a while. Ah well she gets what she wants at the end. Shame about her team/friends. They were cool people. 

–Greenteeth by Molly O’Niel started May 3, 2026 and finished May 5, 2026- 4/5 stars. Reading stories about the fae is always quite fascinating. They exist on a different level and it’s just fascinating. This book may have started like Motheater but it was definitely not the same. It was mostly a found family fetch quest book. Jenny, Temperance (the witch she rescued), and a goblin named Brackus spend most of the book trying to find certain objects that could be made into a weapon to defeat the antagonist. After it initially doesn’t go the way they planned this book dives into the king arthur mythology which is quite interesting. Usually you choose one or the other. This book was cozy most of the time but there were a moment or two in which I thought “Wow that's brutal.” Everything works at the end and the antagonist is cast out of the town. And I guess Temperance reunites with her husband at the end as she has more children when she is meeting up with Jenny. Overall pretty decent read. 

–Infomocracy by Malka Older started May 6, 2026 and finished May 8, 2026- 3.5/5 stars. So it took me a bit to get used to reading this book and understand what was going on. That’s okay. Sometimes you read books like that. Anyway, this book was decent. I like the futuristic world and it’s technology. The characters were well rounded and all that. I just didn’t care for the plot that much? I didn’t know this book would just have the plot of this special election and it was just election talk over and over again. This micro-democracy thing they have going on is quite fascinating to read about. One of the parties is trying to manipulate things their way is a plot point. There is an earthquake in Tokyo and its interesting how all the parties try and help their constituents. Two of the main characters hook up. That doesn’t seem wise to do when they there is so much to do with this election cycle. At some point Mishima gets suspicious of Ken and she just stabs him with her stiletto and somehow Ken is still into her at the end? Weird stuff. Anyway, I won’t be reading further as I am not interested and the local libraries don’t seem to have the other two books.  

–The River Had Roots by Amal El-Mohta started May 8, 2026 and finished May 9, 2026- 4/5 stars. This book was less than a hundred pages long. It was quite short and sweet. I like the world in which it takes place. I kind of wish this book was longer but I don’t know what more could have been added. Two sisters who sing to their willows which in itself magic. They share a bond.  One of the sisters is into a fae named Rin. Rin is pretty damn cool. There is also this white rich guy who wants to marry one of the sisters and when she refuses him and chooses Rin, he drowns her in a river. Nobody is more scorned than a rich white man who gets denied the woman he wants. The sister who is drowned is essentially dead in the land of humans but on the fae side she still lives. She has to make a choice on which side to be on. This is a story of sisterhood. She saves her sister from being wedded to that awful man who drowned her. It’s sweet how this is done. I liked this story quite a bit. I wonder if there are other Amal El-Mohta books out there I can read besides the time war book which I have already read. 

–-Cold Eternity by S.A Barnes started May 11, 2026 and finished May 13, 2026- 4/5 stars. Horror elements in science fiction is something I’m realizing I really like. The main character is desperate to escape her life after a messy political scandal and people are after her so she gets a “job” on a ship that is essentially carrying people in cryogenic status. Right away she figures out that something is amiss about this ship. She is seeing things that shouldn’t be there but they are really there. You know I feel like it’s only the audacity of a rich white man to want to have immortality and would be willing to sell his body off to an alien creature to get that. Only for that alien creature to force you eat people to stay alive. It’s a good thing for the ship is full of essentially dead people. And desperate people like the main character to feast upon. The guy who “hired” her knew the entire time what was happening and also has that white man audacity to want to live a long time and wants to be the next host of the alien body. Karma comes for him as that doesn’t happen. The main character has interesting interactions with the AI bodies of the rich white man’s children. It’s pretty entertaining that when she does send out a call for the people hunting her to get her they come by and the main character is like “Oh thank god you’re here. We got to go! There’s a monster eating people here!” And the other people are like “What the fuck are you talking about? You obviously have been here too long. This seems like the perfect place to store drugs.” She responds with “Did you not hear me? There’s a fucking monster out there!” Things only get going again because the monster does reveal himself. I feel bad for the main character. She gets screwed in the political scandal, she gets beat up, she escapes to this ship, and she starts being hunted by monster while also being lied to about this happening, and then when she does escape the ship she has to answer the questions about what the fuck happened to all those people who died and she ends up going to jail for a few months because of the political scandal. It sucks but at least she’s not on the ship at the end of the book. 

–Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey started May 14, 2026 and finished May 16, 2026- 4/5 stars. A murder mystery in a magical school is pretty good set up for a book. I like that the magical school is described as being just like a normal high school. The main character is not magical. Her twin sister is but Ivy is not. So it’s quite interesting that she is called upon to investigate the murder at the magical school her twin sister teaches at. The suspects are all quite intriguing to read about. Ivy’s methods of investigating are entertaining. I just wish she didn’t drink so much. I mean I get it. Watching your mom slowly die of cancer is fucking awful. I know this from experience. I like that the book answers the question of whether or not magic could have saved her and the answer is pretty much no. It would be incredibly hard and she was too far gone. Both sisters are obviously torn up about their mom dying of cancer. Ivy had to see it. Ivy watched and wondered whether her mom could have been saved by her sister. Tabitha had the drive to fix her mom. She was young when her mother was dying and her dad reached out to her for treatment but it couldn’t be done. This seriously messed up both sisters. The fact that this is tied to the “murder” mystery is quite well done. The person murdered wasn’t murdered at all. It turns out trying to drive cancer out of the body with magic is truly fucking hard. It takes a long time and it has to be precise. Three days of surgery with no sleep can be a killer. Something I didn’t like about this book is that is just sort of ends? I wish there was more to the story. I feel like this could be a good series but who knows. I like the idea of a nonmagical private investigator investigating magical crimes. 

–The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed started May 16, 2026 and finished May 17, 2026- 3.3/5 stars. This book was less than 200 hundred pages which was just fine with me. The most interesting part about books that has a post apocalyptic world or a world more ravaged by climate change is how and where the people live. There is also something called Cad that is a mind altering fungus that is affecting the people of this world including the main character. I wish it was more though. It sounds like an interesting fungus. In it’s interest in keeping the body alive it will lock people in place and prevent them from doing stupid things. It does this several times to the main character. But I wish there was more to this fungus like people can talk to it and such. Anyway, there isn’t much to this story. The main character is obviously a teenager like 17-19 because she is accepted into this college in a different place and she spends most of the book being like “I want to go so badly but how can I leave everyone here! Including my mom who also has Cad!” That got old at some point. 

-The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao started May 17, 2026 and finished May 22, 2026 - 4/5 stars. This book has a really cool premise. Being on a train where you have to let go of your emotional baggage and face your traumas is pretty damn cool. I was just constantly reminded of the tv show Infinity Train. Man that was such a good show. Anyway, we follow Raya and Q who both have quite interesting backstories. Raya was clearly born to be spare parts for her older brother Jace who had medical problems. She felt incredibly useless after he died which is quite something. You should not have another child if you already have a first child that has medical problems. That’s a weird and harmful dynamic. Makes it seem like you only had the second child for the first one. There isn’t love, its dependance. Raya and Q are on this train which is pretty interesting. They go from place to place hunting down the stowaway which got kind of old. It felt meandering at times and just sort of aimless. The story picks up however when we are told just how many times Raya and Q have gotten on this train. This trauma time doesn’t exist in linear time. I guess many different versions of people can get on at different times in their lives. Raya’s emotional baggage about her brother causes a lot of problems. It’s quite interesting what will work and what doesn’t work each time around. This train needs to run better if it takes little things to completely destroy it. Overall this book was cool but I think I liked Watermoon better as I liked the world more. I just couldn’t help but think of Infinity Train. 

-Yesterday by Felicia Yap started May 23, 2026 and finished May 24, 2026- 4/5 stars. Ooof what a book. I sense that Felicia Yap is perhaps writing from experience? Anyway, speculative fiction is quite a genre to read because almost every time it’s like “Wow what a fucked up world. I can see this happening in our world.” The world is divided into two classes: Monos and Duos. Most people can only remember yesterday and some can remember two days. I don’t know how anything gets done in this world if people have limited memory. I mean sure they can write in their diaries all they want but at the end of the day people still have limited memories. And also it doesn’t matter if people are going to write lies in their diaries. There’s nothing stopping them from doing this. It reminds me of another book I read that had a similar concept I think. Can’t think of it right now but yeah. It seems like having relationships and having children would be fucking frightening in this world. You wake up and realize you are pregnant. It’s fucked. Like 50 First Dates fucked. Although limited memory only comes after a certain age. It seems like children have decent memories? It’s so weird to think about. Anyway, there is murder mystery in this book. We follow four characters. Right away you know that Mark is a piece of shit. I don’t know how he and Claire are still together after 20 years. Usually couples break up after their child dies. Claire should have divorced her piece of shit husband like she said she was going to. Somewhat realistic ending with him in jail only for him to probably to get out early and still have his writing career. I am just glad that Sophia/Anna survived and got the revenge she wanted. It sounded like she went through a lot of effort to put it together. Well, at least she has money to spend at the end. 

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet- I think this is one of those books I found by browsing the catalogue. That's what pretty much all the books I have checked out recently are. Every once in a while you got to read a book that is an AU of Sherlock Holmes. This book is pretty entertaining. There is also leviathans that come out of the ocean that have to be defeated. The Moriarity character is killing people in the most interesting of ways. Should be fun to read the rest of this book after I finish The Rebirths of Tao. Perhaps I should check out the rest of this author's books if I really enjoy this one.

The Black Tides of Heaven by Jy Yang- Again this was probably chosen out of the catalogue. There appears to be twins in it that I always appreciate reading as I am a twin. Definitely the shortest book in the bunch of books I have listed here today.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North- Who doesn't like a book about someone who is constantly reliving their life? That sounds super interesting. Almost like a time loop book. Could be proven to be angsty and emotional.

Sign Here by Claudia Lux- I am a fan of reading books about characters having jobs in hell or books that take place in hell. It always proves to be quite interesting. To read about the various rules and such.

Cold Eternity by S.A Barnes- I read another book by this author before. I believe it was called Dead Silence. Mixing science fiction and horror elements is something that works for me. I think I need to read more book by this author because she has cool ass ideas and explores interesting topics. I have already finished with this book. Good stuff.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey- I have also read other books by this author and I need to read more. This book has an interesting plot and I do like reading about characters who are twins as I am a twin.

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed- Pretty sure I found out this book by looking at a list of dystopian books and finding this at my local library. Books wracked with climate change/disaster are normally a bummer to read but there is an element in it that appeals to me.

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao- I read Watermoon a month ago and I decided I should out the author's other work. I just hope it's not too similar to her previous work but I don't think it would be.

The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu- After reading the first book in this trilogy I decided I need to read more. Its such a fascinating concept that I have not read much of. I want more of this kind of stuff. Anyway, I'm currently reading it.

Spread Me by Sarah Gailey- Other books I have read by Sarah Gailey have been pretty good. They have cool concepts in them and I like Sarah's writing style. This book is apparently like The Thing but incredibly dirty? We shall see how I feel about this book. An alien virus is such an interesting concept to me. This book is also on the shorter side so maybe it will be a quick read.

Greenteeth by Molly O'Niel- I think this book has been on the list for a while. I think it's like Motheater from it's description. Hopefully its more satisfying than Motheater.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohta- This book is relatively short and it's been on my list for quite some time. Amal El-Mohta cowrote This is How You Lose a Time War with Max Gladstone so I'm interested to know how their writing style will be like.

Infomocracy by Malka Older- I have read two other books by this author so I'm interested what this book will be like.

-Motheater by Linda Codega started April 2, 2026 and finished April 5, 2026- 3.3/5 stars. Now this is an interesting book. It had a good story and interesting characters. This book was written by a non binary white person but one of the main characters was a black woman. It just seems kind of strange? The black main character falls for an over 150 year old witch who was white. I feel it would make more sense if the two main characters were switched or they were both black. Bennie seems to have a connection with Motheater right away. They seem quite friendly with each other pretty much right away. Kind of too fast for me whatever they never fully get together. Anyway, this book sort of repeats itself a lot. Like I get it. The mountain is awaking, the mountain is angry, the mountain wants retribution and blood, the mountain is taking and killing people. It sure does take a while for the mountain to be truly awake. Another repeated thing is that when Bennie realizes she’s into Motheater she comments that she’s fucked a lot. Every other chapter is about Motheater's past as Esther and those chapters were quite interesting and well written. Esther was the town’s witch or “Neighbor” who protected the mountain but of course the mountain is being targeted for mining by rich white men who want to strip it of its resources. They end up trapping Esther into the mountain so she’s out of the way while they do that. The book is quite environmental. I like what it was going for but it repeated itself a lot. 

--The Ministry of Time by Kailene Bradley started April 6, 2026 and finished April 8, 2026- 3.5/5 stars. What an interesting read. It seems to be an interesting choice to “rescue” people from the past (they were going to die anyway) and bring them to the future and teach them to assimilate into the current culture. It’s an experiment to see if this can go well and be successful. The main character is a “bridge” who is teaching this man from the 1800s about modern life. At first it felt like a slice of life thing where the main character is just detailing what they did that day and what that accomplished. Time shenanigans are happening in the background along with people being moles in the organization and such. So it becomes less slice of life and more of “there is a mole in the ministry and there are people from the future trying to kill others thing” I guess I got so used to the slice of life thing that the actual plot threw me off. I think it’s kind of weird that the main character ends up forming a relationship with the man she is so supposed to be the bridge for. Interesting commentary on her life as someone whose mother is Cambodian. Interesting lessons are being taught to the “expats” (the people rescued from their time). I find it quite realistic that at the end the man she was watching ending up leaving. They are not together at the end. They might in the future but not when the book ends which is quite fair as he was an experiment and he felt that. This book felt like The Chronicles of St Mary's series at times. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t feel as strongly about this book. 

-Home Grown Magic by Jamie Pacton started April 8, 2026 and finished April 10, 2026- 4.5/5 stars. This book was cute and cozy to read. This book was also a romance so the main characters are into each other right away (they met when they were young teens) and they share their love for each other several times. I do like the relationship between Margo and Yael. It’s pretty rare for me to read a book that features a non binary character such as Yael and Yael is the massive flirt in this book who gets along with everyone. They kind of have to as they are the heir. Margo is a plant witch who is trying to save her town, home and parents. Yael’s parents are rich bastards who only want to make money and want to profit off of Margo’s talents but she isn’t as good as her grandmother. The magic system in this book is pretty interesting. Especially with Yael and their family. They have a patron who gives them power when they need it. Yael hears this patron in their head occasionally. I like this idea. Since this book is a romance it seems like they are having sex in the most inconvenient places possible and having life altering conversations after the sex. Lies and deceit come out afterwards which seems pretty typical for a romance plot. But you can never magic away your feelings for someone for long and so they do end up making up. Yael gives up their magic but they weren’t very good at it anyway so its no big deal.  I wonder what the next book is about. Going off the pattern of these books, it must be about Sage (Margo’s friend) or one of Yael’s cousins. 

-I Met a Traveler in an Antique Land by Connie Willis started and finished April 11, 2026- 3/5 stars. Pretty low 3 stars at that. I think Connie Willis has some kind of bitterness inside. There was a bitterness in the previous book I read by her. Anyway, this short story (it was less than 100 pages) sort of felt like a twilight zone episode. A bitter man who thinks a certain way about books stumbles upon some kind of book graveyard and is told many things about these books by the people who work there. He leaves because he has to get a meeting of some kind and then he can’t find info about this place online or anyone he asks. He gets obsessed with it and neglects his duties as a blog writer or whatever. His agent is like “Are you okay? Where are you” and he’s like “I don’t know. I can’t find this place I found. I need to find it.” and then the book just ends. I like the ending. Felt very twilight zone like. 

-Watermoon by Samantha Sotto Yambao started April 11, 2026 and finished April 14, 2026 - 4/5 stars. I love this book’s vibes. I also don’t think I have read a book like this where the main character’s dad (then presumably her) ran a magical pawnshop in which they traded people’s regrets/choices? It was an interesting premise. Although pretty much the entire book is the main character and this man who randomly comes to the pawnshop going from place to place making deals in order to find the main character’s dad and or mother who didn’t want to be found. While also running from the shiikuin who are the ones after the dad and such. They are the enforcers and collect the choices at the pawnshop. This book is mystical and full of different creatures/things from a culture I hardly know about. The book sort of stops when they actually find the dad and mom. Then it becomes what else is this book going to be about? I guess its about the two main characters finding each other again. They seem to have an instant connection and get together very quickly. They get separated and he is determined to find her again even though she was going to betray him to the shiikuin. I guess he forgave her for that. Also the ending just sort of ends. She finds him again and is like “Oh I tore down the pawnshop. It was cruel what we were doing to people” Which is like ok? You can do that? Aren’t the shiikuin after you and would want people’s choices/regrets? I guess this doesn’t matter as long as she and the other main character end up together. I feel bad for Haruto who was the man she was arranged to marry. He sacrificed so much. 

–Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth started and finished April 15, 2026- 4/5 stars. This was a short book. I mean the story of Antigone is a short one so why pad it? Anyway, this was entertaining as the world is quite interesting. Very handmaid’s tale when it comes down to reproduction and women’s rights or people who have wombs. Pretty dystopian. There is also a science fiction twist on it so it also makes it quite entertaining. I forgot that Antigone even had siblings. Everyone is doomed from the start. It’s interesting that each chapter is in a different character’s perspective. Thought it was just going to be Antigone’s but I guess not. Not much else to say about it. 

-The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark started April 16, 2026 and finished April 18, 2026 - 4/5 stars. This book was quite different than I thought it was going to be. It had a lot more humor in it than I was expecting. I thought the book was going to be more serious. This isn't a bad thing. Also I thought the main character and the rest of the dead cat tail assassins would be working together to do their jobs. Eeveen spends a lot of time in the book fighting her away through the other assassins to uncover the conspiracy against her while also protecting the girl she was supposed to assassinate. The girl has her face and thus it is decided that she shouldn’t be killed. I like the world in this book. I wish there was more of it. This book is 200 something pages and I wish it was a little longer. Usually I’m complaining on how long books are but I wanted more of this book. I think it’s clear that I need to read more of P. Djèlí Clark’s books. 

-Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy Snyder started April 18, 2026 and finished April 19, 2026- 4/5 stars. This book is fucked up but I knew that going in. It’s not fucked up in the dystopian way but it’s fucked up in the body horror and gruesome endings kind of way. Body horror is quite interesting to read about. I find that it’s quite interesting what can be described. Anyway, this book had an interesting story of a virus causing the apocalypse. We follow three women and I thought each chapter was going to be about a different woman but no the book is broken up into three parts which works fine. This virus makes people into flesh eating monsters essentially. Erin gets the virus and gets a taste for living tissue. Quite interesting that it also made her more bold and essentially say to her husband “Hey I know having this virus is unfair to both of us and I know you have needs. Why don’t we have an open marriage?” And then promptly goes and has sex with a woman who is similar to her. Savannah is quite interesting too. She gets off on killing people. Erin’s husband is actually her client. I think she kills him which is a shame because it seems like he was figuring out his body and such. I feel bad for Mareva who has chronic tumors and these things turn into children for the monsters that are taking over everything. The book sort of ends? Like there could be another one. That’s my only gripe with it. I wonder what would happen in a potential sequel. This book was wild but incredibly interesting and I’m sure a second book would be too. 

-Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire started April 20, 2026 and finished April 22, 2026 - 4/5 stars. I liked this high fantasy world. It had all sorts of creatures like goblins, wizards, lichee, and many more different things. A lot of them were treated like pests which was entertaining. Something that I couldn’t get over is why the hell was Isabella Nagg and Mr. Nagg even married in the first place if they didn’t like each other and avoided each other at all costs? The trauma bond of killing their previous spouses really couldn’t have been it right? Isabella’s previous spouse was poisoned by a goblin apple and was going to wither away and die anyway. Mr. Nagg killed his previous spouse for trying to leave. Why the hell did Isabella go through so much to save Mr. Nagg after he ate a goblin apple and was going to wither away? It’s a good thing he died anyway at the end. A form of Isabella died too but she is a wizard and just came back different which was cool. This book was funny and entertaining. The girl boss antagonist was amusing to read about. She took the goblin apples and made them work in her favor until it didn’t. Overall I enjoyed reading this book despite the weird marriage between Isabella and her husband. 

-The Library of the Dead by T.L Huchu started April 23, 2026 and finished April 25, 2026- 4/5 stars. Now this book is interesting. The protagonist is a fifteen year old girl (or nearly so) and yet this isn’t considered YA according to the library I picked it out from. After reading it, I am still unsure if it’s YA or not. I can see teens reading it though. Anyway this book was pretty intriguing to read. A black fifteen year old girl from Edinburgh who can communicate with ghosts. Pretty unique position she’s in. Reminds me of the Felix Castor books a bit as she plays an instrument to deal with ghosts too. I like how she’s like “I don’t have time to deal with this bullshit! I have rent and bills to pay!” She uses her talents to bill ghosts and their families for her services. Seems like quite a realistic way to use her talents. This girl deals with a lot. She’s a young black teenager who lives in poverty and has to be the one to figure out to pay for everything. She’s also the town’s ghost communicator and it seems like she is the only one to figure out whats happening to the children in the town. Bit of a waste that her sister wasn’t taken. Might have upped the stakes a bit but Ropa dealt with a lot already. She also stumbles upon magic in the library of the dead which is quite interesting. Did not think magic and ghosts mixed in the same book was a good idea but whatever. She uses it to escape her situations.