fullibooked but make it booklr

Oh boy, oh boy, it's Alix E. Harrow's latest, and if you've been following me for a while, you KNOW I love what Harrow does with fairytale stuff. This one is no exception. Part Beauty and the Beast, part Alice in Wonderland, part historical fiction, and part gothic romance.

Opal lives in Eden (the town in Kentucky, not the garden), where she scrounges just to keep herself and her brother fed. The town is chock full of stories, but so many of them revolve around the one spooky house behind the big iron gate. Starling House is bad luck. Everyone says so. Opal knows better than to mess with bad luck. She's already had plenty. But when the reclusive owner of Starling House offers her a job (mostly against his will) that could mean her getting her brother out of their crappy motel room and their crappier town, Opal can't refuse. But Starling House has been calling to Opal in more ways than one. And she's going to discover that beneath the rot of the collapsing walls there's a secret that hasn't made it into the town's stories. And it's time for that story to be told.

I loved this book! Harrow gets me every time, I swear. Taking a small concept (spooky house) and wrapping it up in layers and layers of creative storytelling (in this case, storytelling itself!). The whole "there's two sides to every story" doesn't even cover it in this one. Each new version of the history of the house adds another clue to the "truth" whatever that may be. And binds our main characters ever closer. The style, the stories, the mist, the somewhat sentient house, the mistakes, the suspicious rich people, the even more suspicious corporate people, the town, the birds, the river! Oh it was all so good. Not horror, though it is sometimes stated to be. But definitely, and deliciously gothic.

Tis the season of my reading enemies to lovers books, and forgetting to post about them. I need to catch up because I'm a few books behind, so we'll start with this one: The Wolf and The Woodsman by Ava Reid.

The women dressed in wolf-skins are one with their magic. Evike is alone in her powerlessness. Even more so when the Woodsmen come to take one of the wolf-girls away, and Evike is thrust into the cloak of another girl and offered up as sacrifice. While the capital city they're taking her to is sure to be a death sentence, the woods they must travel through are even more dangerous. Evike will have to put her trust in her captor, and in her gods. Both will demand sacrifice. Both will change her life.

Ok so here's the thing. I liked this book. I liked the brutality of the magic and the sacrifices. I liked the messy political family situation and how that mess spread through the whole kingdom/empire thing. I liked the writing and the monsters and Ava's cranky main character who just wants to be like the other girls (kinda). But one thing kept bugging me: the religions.

I saw a lot of love for the aesthetic of Shanghai Immortal when it was released, but not much about the contents. I am now here to tell you that the inside of the book is even better than the outside.

Lady Jing lives in Shanghai, though not the mortal one. Under the discerning eye of the King of Hell, Lady Jing has spent the last 90 years running errands in difficult clothing, getting into fights with spiteful immortals, and trying not to lose herself in the frenzy of fresh blood. (Oh yeah, she's half vampire, half fox spirit. Imagine the shenanigans!!) When a mortal man arrives on the docks of her immortal city, Jing will have her chance to get back at the courtiers she hates with a passion… just as long as she doesn't eat him first.

I'm not entirely sure why I went for citrus with my Agatha Christie for this one.

Could it be because I had orange pips on the brain because I was in detective central and there was a lot of number symbolism involved? It could. Or maybe it was because I keep calling Christie my palate cleanser between big servings of fantasy and sci-fi and citrus is often a go to? Could be that too. Maybe I just had too many mandarins sitting around, or a craving. Who knows?

It's as big a mystery as The Big Four. Which, as Poirot mysteries go, was a fairly off-beat one. Unlike the usual formula of a Poirot novel, in which there's murder and investigation, The Big Four is about a secret group of skilled individuals who are planning to run the world, and Poirot intends to stop them… once he's worked out who they are. I think that's why I was vibing with the Sherlock/Moriarty of it all. It was Poirot vs the anti-Poirot. Though Sherlock only had the one Most Dangerous Opponent, Poirot is talented (and vain) enough to have four!!

Three times they would go into the deathless waters, to become powerful and strong. Three times. But not all of them come out…

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri is book one of the Burning Kingdoms series. And it starts this series off with a bang, or maybe a splash. We've got a princess imprisoned for refusing to step onto the burning pyre, a ruler willing to send women to their deaths to keep his world "pure", a sickness that turns people into something like trees from the inside out, and a maidservant hiding her past connection to the ruin on the top of a nearly impossibly climb.

Inspired by Indian epics, and chock full of interesting characters, it's no wonder this book won the World Fantasy Award 2022. The magic is strange and beautiful, the secrets are plentiful, the manipulation, affection and other troubled relationships are complicated and twisting. And there's a touch of difficult romance to top it all off.

Did I take ages to get around to reading this one? Yes absolutely. Should I have picked it up sooner? Yes absolutely. Was it worth the wait (even self-imposed)? Yes. Absolutely. Will I be reading book 2? (I feel like you know the answer).

Doc. Ten. Life. Whatever name you call her, she thought she was done with it.

Living as a lonely medic out on the edge of civilisation, (if anyone can call an outer moon civilisation) she was hoping to spend her years adding numbers to the score of people she's saved. But conflict is coming over the horizon whether Ten is ready or not. Those she called friends are in grave peril. With rebellion, sinister tycoons sniffing around the mysteries of Them, and the Accord losing its grip, the dusty, deadly moon that Ten somehow calls home is becoming even more dangerous. And there's another name, yet unknown, drawing closer… Hel.

Book two, following Ten Low, and oh my god. I had forgotten how ballsy this space opera is. Faulty tech, lots of guns, weird things waiting in the dust storms, chances and choices, slavery and prisoners and capitalism gone wild. There's no stopping this bombshell of a book.

Who is ready for some high fantasy, with black-eyed demons, witches who wield weather, and a city mostly underwater?

Kai wakes in a trap. Made of water by someone attempting to steal his power. He has been dead to the world for a while, and the world has changed. The work he did to break the bonds of colonisation is coming apart. And to top it all off, his best friend who has been trapped too, can't find her wife! The attempts on their lives and the disappearance of their friend and lover will not go unpunished. Just as soon as they work out who they're meant to be fighting.

Witch King by Martha Wells feels like an absolute classic fantasy book (though without the misogyny that a lot of vintage fantasy has). The characters' voices were dynamic, and their lives were interesting. I wasn't 100% on what was happening plot-wise at any given time, and yet this never seemed a downside. I was having a great adventure on a vessel made for magical angelic type creatures, and reminiscing alongside the characters about the war that shaped their world. The world is rich and vast, and the gaps between the past and present felt genuine and fitting of the longer-living character's memories.

I was hesitant to read this since, although I absolutely adored Martha's Murderbot scifi universe, I had never read any of her fantasy. What if I hated it? But boy, I was so pleased by this book. I love the writing so much. It seems Martha Wells can turn her hand at anything. And I shouldn't be surprised.

Burning Roses by S. L. Huang takes two very well-known stories, combines them, ages them up, and then sends them on a journey together.

Rosa was known in her younger days by a beautiful red hood, and her dealings with an intelligent, and brutal wolf. But she's left all of that behind, even the parts she misses. And now spends her days hunting with her friend.

Hou Yi the Archer was a teacher and a hero. Now she and Rosa are past their primes, but there are still threats to the land where they reside. The sunbirds are powerful and dangerous, and they seem to be targeting those who cannot defend themselves.

These two tales together make for an interesting crossover. The middle-age of the protagonists allows them a fair few moments of reflection on their lives, and honesty on their tongues. While this was not a phenomenal read, it was a well-made little novella about regret, heroism, violence, and love.

Sequel to the Left-Handed Booksellers of London, we're getting sinister!!

The Sinister Booksellers of Bath takes us back into the Old World. This time with living statues, and secret gardens. Susan had hoped to return to her normal art-school life after the events of the last year. What with all the magic and danger and finding out her family history was more significantly strange than she could imagine. But when her new beau, and his equally magical (though differently handed) sister get entangled with a mystical map of a hidden maze, Susan's help, and her art skills, will pull her back into a world of wonder. And danger.

Garth Nix writes fantasy like no one else. Every part of this series has felt so fun, interesting, and adventurous. I love this kind of magic, this setting, these wily teens. Everything is somehow nostalgic, but not in a bad way. These books remind me of the way I used to devour fantasy books as a young teen. As a sequel this held up. With just as many thrills, and twists, and soft affection. Though I will say this one was definitely a bit more sinister than book one. The statues. Oh boy the statues.

The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta is a story told through a series of journal entries, and a couple of letters, in space, and full of moss.

Lumi is waiting for her partner, Sol. Writing in her journal to them, as she always does when travelling, so that the two of them can read it back when together. But the reconnection is being put on hold when Sol is delayed. And then delayed some more. And then officially disappeared… Lumi sets out to find them, and in so doing will find out more of Sol's past than she could imagine, and more of her own.

While this novel does play with some interesting concepts: eco-terrorism, human damage to earth, the colonisation of space, healing through innate connection, etc. The plot itself felt a little lacking. Due to the epistolic style, all of the action had already passed by the time the reader gets to it. The description of it as a thriller was, I thought, a bit of exaggeration. It's less thrilling and more voyaging. The space travel was relaxing, and the planets scenic.

Claire Heywood is now in my go-to list for Greek myth retellings, right next to Madeline Miller. They are both absolutely top tier writers and the way they tell these mythical women's stories, in particular, is incredible.

The Shadow of Perseus follows the three women intrinsically linked to the 'hero' Perseus: his mother, his monster, and his wife.

Danae's comfort is ripped away from her through the words of an oracle, and her father's arrogance. Alone and pregnant, she must start life anew. And raising Perseus without his father is going to be the hardest thing she's ever done.

Medusa is safe in her home, with her sisters, and the snakes. Until a stranger ends up in her care. The safety that relies on her family's anonymity and the stories that come with it will be in the hands of a boy determined to prove his power.

Andromeda wants nothing more than to keep her family in good standing. She will sacrifice her dignity, her body, or her life to keep those she loves safe. But when a young man blunders into her world, she will have to leave everything she knows for a life on a razor's edge.

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske is the final book of the Last Binding trilogy and oh, my, god. I did not want this series to end.

Lord Hawthorn's life of avoiding his magical peers, and spending his misery in peace, has been getting more and more difficult of late. What with both the Blythe siblings getting into adventures around him, and his past lovers insisting he help out. Not to mention the threat to every magician in Britain drawing closer with each piece of the Last Contract that's discovered.

But now Lord Hawthorn has another person drawing him into this mess, Alan Ross. The gorgeous, argumentative, writer and thief. And he hates Hawthorn almost as much as Hawthorn does!

This one gets intense, and then spicy, and then bloody and exciting. I adore the magic throughout this trilogy, and all of the silly little gays in their beautifully tailored suits (at least, the rich ones). A Power Unbound is no exception. The magic is binding and grubby, kind and homey, mystical and ancient. And so are the people. Each one of these books has been an absolute romp. I devoured this one in two sittings.

Historical fantasy set in Scandinavia with witchcraft, shapechanging, romance, and a whole lot of sword fighting? Is it my birthday??

Genevieve Gornichec's story of Angrboda, Witch's Heart, was an absolutely incredible re-imagining of Norse mythology, so the second I saw that they'd written another book I was dying to read it. The Weaver and the Witch Queen did not disappoint.

Inspired by the tale of Gunnhildr from the Icelandic sagas, this story tells of three girls who as children vowed to always help each other. Now as adults their lives had diverged greatly, but fate has brought their bond back to them. In strange and terrible ways. When the lives of the ones the women love are threatened, where will they break their vows, hearts, or stories? These women are not cut and dry characters. They are all manner of sharp tongues, and mischief making, and interesting intentions.

The magic of this world is delectable. I'm talking prophecy, runes, spirits, and threads of life. There's complicated familial bonds, some that are just frayed, others that end with blood. As I mentioned there's romance, of the most complex kinds. Raiding and violence, kindness and sisterhood. Weaving and seafaring and fighting.

What struck me the most out of all of this was the historical feeling. Now I may be biased based on how many Welsh Viking videos I've watched on YouTube, but the historical creation of the world felt so genuine that I would forget magic wasn't actually a part of casual Norse life. From the descriptions of the clothing, to the sleeping arrangements, to the moral and law codes, to the weather. I really felt like I was there. Brooches and beads baby!! Yes!!

Nimona!!! Given its Netflix movie release, I couldn't resist showing the love to one of my all time favourite graphic novels.

What started out as an internet comic is now an insanely beautiful animated movie. And I absolutely loved it. It was more heartwarming than the heartwrenching of the book, but the humour, the adventure, the silliness, and the love was all translated across the formats. The two are not the same story but follow the same path and any fans of the graphic novel will not be disappointed.

If you haven't watched Nimona on netflix yet, go check it out, it's awesome. Also if you haven't read Nimona, by ND Stevenson, go check it out, it's awesome.

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao is one of those fantasy/sci fi blends that makes you feel like you're in a whole different genre.

In a world where storms ravage the earth and obliterate and rebuild the flora for years at a time, the only safe place to be is the sky. The architects who make the floating islands can split their sight between reality and the Moment where they can manipulate the plants of their home. But there are only a few, so their lives have become privileged to the point of holiness. Their non-architect spouses ground them in reality.

Our main two characters are one such pair. Ahilya is an archeologist, determined to understand the ever-changing jungle below their floating home. She is also determined to close the gap of power between architects and non-architects. Her husband, a Senior Architect, Iravan, has trouble believing in her vision as the earth rages grow longer, and his fellow architects grow weary. Their marriage is already rocky, and it's not going to get any easier when Iravan forces his way onto Ahilya's archaeological expedition, and when that expedition goes horribly wrong out in the jungle.

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang. This book is so interesting.

I've seen it described as a sort of thriller which, I mean it is terrifying the kind of things that come out of the main character's mouth, but it doesn't particularly scream thriller. It is, however, an extremely intimate portrait of industry level and quiet racism. Particularly in the creative and publication world.

June Haywood, a writer of little renown, has watched the woman she graduated with became a world-class success. But when a freak accident ends their odd friendship, June takes away a strange sense of disbelief and an unfinished manuscript that doesn't belong to her. Under a new name, with an ambiguously ethnic author photo, and with a new team of editors and publishers, June is sending the stolen book into the real world.

Plagiarism, cultural appropriation, and the subtleties of everyday bigotry, Kuang is bringing it all front and center. I've never been so shudderingly furious at the thoughts and behaviours of a main character as I have with June. Seeing this kind of scandal piling up against someone who thinks they're right to the point of madness is an uncomfortably familiar story (and also the reason I stay away from twitter). This is the kind of book I wish didn't have to be written, because of the way it reflects our present world. But I'm so glad I read it.

There's something rotten at the heart of the government.

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson follows up right where we left off at the end of Her Majesty's Royal Coven. Thank goodness. And it is just as wild a ride as book one.

Our protagonists, the witches who grew up together, have wildly different lives to each other. And the dramatics, the witch hunts and the mad dash to protect a young trans teen brought about by a dangerous prophecy in book one, has irrecoverably changed their lives. (Some In Far Worse Ways Than Others!!)

Now, one witch is searching for her missing brother, another is missing her husband, and Niamh is missing all her usual warmth. They are relying on each other, and suspicious too. But that's not all! There's another secret society poking around the coven, there's a human prime minister to deal with, and a shadowy Shadow Cabinet that needs attention.