“I'm going up to my room now, where I may die.”

Through the power of travelling by train on holiday, all things are possible.

The Employees by Olga Ravn (NO RATING)

I understand why this novella was written the way it was, but fundamentally I just... did not like the writing style. Do you know how stupid that is as a review? 'I found the prose dull and struggled to engage, found each character faceless and hard to differentiate between'... in the satire about capitalism novella?!?! Like yes, I think everything I disliked was also intentional and performed for a reason. I was still bored out of my mind so. RIP me.

Risky Business by Annabelle Slator (2.75 STARS)

Slator's first novel The Launch Date was my favourite romance from last year, so this was an anticipated release... but this was just so DULL. We (genre fiction) need to free ourselves from the shackles of shallow, hollow, performative feminism that is just capitalism and commodification in a trenchcoat and under a little hat. Why why why was the romance plotline a secondary thread, in a romance novel? Why was I supposed to root for an app development that honestly sounds like my worst nightmare? unfortunately, not everyone is Emily Henry. even Emily Henry isn't Emily Henry anymore. sometimes, it's ok for romance to be the primary focus of your romance heroine :(

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden (5 STARS)

Any contemporary fantasy book that deals with Faerie as a concept and as a lore in an interesting, nuanced, more historically researched and non-SJM way will always get my backing - that it's by one of my favourite authors was just a special treat. I took a photo with Anne of Brittany in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, that's how much I liked this book. I have historical girlies I root for now.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (4.5 STARS)

A really interesting and haunting dystopia that feels so so close to the present moment. It's central concept focuses on data collection, the commodification of digital identity, and increased policing of 'dissent' in quiet fascism. I genuinely loved it, though the ending was kind of abrupt, as if the author didn't know how to fold back her own disruptive influence and diffuse it.

Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis (3 STARS)

I feel like Burgis is both suited and not suited to romantasy, in the sense that it's close to what she was already writing, but also her sex scenes were so reluctant it felt like they were forced to be in there. The characters in this had a potential that made up for the weak worldbuilding, but unfortunately I don't think the plot utilised their strengths or key traits properly, leaving us with a more boring story than what could've been written!

reading wrap ups: jan | feb | mar