A surprisingly hopeful story about parental abandonment and codependent friendship and addiction. Also alien abduction. Kind of. Anyway, I really likeA surprisingly hopeful story about parental abandonment and codependent friendship and addiction. Also alien abduction. Kind of. Anyway, I really liked it. And Palwick managed to really pull-off a second-person narration, which is not an easy thing to do.
A surprisingly hopeful story about parental abandonment and codependent friendship and addiction. Also alien abduction. Kind of. Anyway, I really liked it. And Palwick managed to really pull-off a second-person narration, which is not an easy thing to do.
I adored the first book in this series, but I just really bounced off of this one. I got the ebook from my library, and despite having it for a month I adored the first book in this series, but I just really bounced off of this one. I got the ebook from my library, and despite having it for a month only made it 80% thru before the library took it back. But I later borrowed a copy from a friend just to see how it ended.
In The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter this wonderful group of Monstrous Daughters/Daughters of Monsters are active agents discovering their history and advancing the plot. Here, they are mostly passive agents carried along by the plot, rather than actively making it happen.
Also, this book is long.SO LONG. The attention to detail and group-asides that made the first book such a delight worked because they didn't take over the narrative. Here they just became a slog, with so little happening that I never got pulled into the story, but instead kept getting tossed out if it by the slow pace.
I still love these characters, and think this is a brilliant concept, but it just didn't live up to my hopes at all.
Also, if you (metaphorically) put the mysterious disappearance of Sherlock Holmes on the mantlepiece at the beginning of your book, I expect it to actually then matter to the story in that book, and not just be revealed as a teaser for the next book in the series....more
This is a lovely, unusual story and a great introduction to a new-to-me author. The idea of resisting a tyrant via strategic baking is really clever. This is a lovely, unusual story and a great introduction to a new-to-me author. The idea of resisting a tyrant via strategic baking is really clever. But it's the choice to tell the story not from the pov of the baker, but from that of his wife, who has to taste each of his confections before the Traitor King does, that really makes this story something special.
A master-class in maternal anxiety, and in all the things the world tells new and expecting mothers to be afraid of. But also a story about strength aA master-class in maternal anxiety, and in all the things the world tells new and expecting mothers to be afraid of. But also a story about strength and community support.
If discussion of/fear of injury and death of small children is a hard no for you, definitely skip this story. But as someone who has anxiety and who has gotten a lot of the fear-mongering without ever succeeding at getting pregnant, I found this weirdly comforting....more
I've now read two short stories by Carolyn Ives Gilman, both highly-praised, and hated them both. So, I think I can safely say she is not for me. ThisI've now read two short stories by Carolyn Ives Gilman, both highly-praised, and hated them both. So, I think I can safely say she is not for me. This story is a tragedy, but it's a really stupid tragedy, full of characters who are plot-points rather than people. The characters don't seem to be there to guide or build the story, instead they feel like cardboard cutouts, stuck into an already pre-determined narrative....more
This review is of "Waiting Out the End of the World in Patty's Place Cafe" by Naomi Kritzer.
A lovely, warmly queer story about apocalypses, both persoThis review is of "Waiting Out the End of the World in Patty's Place Cafe" by Naomi Kritzer.
A lovely, warmly queer story about apocalypses, both personal and global. Like always with Kritzer I appreciated the quiet, carefully-crafted characters, and the delightful sense of kindness that's a hallmark of her work, but sadly uncommon in these types of stories....more
A delightfully pulpy steampunk adventure in which a secret, inter-dimensional librarian and her mysterious sidekick team up with the local equivalent A delightfully pulpy steampunk adventure in which a secret, inter-dimensional librarian and her mysterious sidekick team up with the local equivalent of Sherlock Holmes to find a stolen book.
This book has everything. Magic and Science and Steampunk airships. Faery Lords and Vampires and Werewolves. Cyborg Crocodiles. Seriously, everything. And yet, Cogman somehow manages to keep all of it moving together at a good pace, and with a nice balance between revelling in the pulpy action and acknowledging the genuine horror of some of what happens....more
This is a lovely, fun fairy-tale-esque m/m fantasy with an unusual POV character and a delightful mid-story twist in which the love interest's mother This is a lovely, fun fairy-tale-esque m/m fantasy with an unusual POV character and a delightful mid-story twist in which the love interest's mother shows up and is awesome.
I adore Tobias, the Wild Man of the woods living a quiet life with his cat and his dryads and his mystical ties to Greenhallow Wood. And I love the slow build of his relationship with Henry Silver, the curious, friendly and irrepressible new owner of Greenhallow Hall, who knows more than he lets on, but considerably less than he thinks.
Also, as mentioned above, Henry's mother is a DELIGHT, and really gives the story a second-wind when it looks like it's taken a permanent turn for the tragic....more
Another reread. This is the one where Sophos turns out to be more awesome than anyone, including him, could possibly have imagined, and Eddis and AttoAnother reread. This is the one where Sophos turns out to be more awesome than anyone, including him, could possibly have imagined, and Eddis and Attolia spend a lot of time wanting to knock some sense into Gen, possibly via application of his head to the nearest hard surface.
I really love Sophos's pov way more than I expected to. I love his mixture of cleverness and naivety, and I really love the way he makes little personal connections with the people around him, without even realizing that's what he's doing.
Also, Eddis gets to be really great in this book, and I love it....more
Another reread. My absolute fave of the series, mostly because COSTIS. I kept having to stop while rereading just to flail about how much I love CostiAnother reread. My absolute fave of the series, mostly because COSTIS. I kept having to stop while rereading just to flail about how much I love Costis. I love seeing Gen from his complete outsider pov, and I love watching him slowly find that he actually kind of likes this maddening, frustrating usurper. And watching him untangle Gen and Irene's relationship.
Also, I love forever that Costis is so straightforward and honest in all things that it makes him one of the only people able to trick Gen. And it's BEAUTIFUL.
cw for this one: off-page torture condoned by our protagonists....more
Reread. This one is so hard at the start, but so rewarding once it gets going. I feel like this is the platonic ideal of an enemies-to-lovers story, aReread. This one is so hard at the start, but so rewarding once it gets going. I feel like this is the platonic ideal of an enemies-to-lovers story, and Turner really works to make the central relationship believable, despite its deeply traumatic beginnings.
I love how thoroughly realized this world is. All the characters are complicated and flawed and human and just a delight to spend time with.
Warning for torture early in the narrative, details behind a spoiler cut: (view spoiler)[The primary pov character gets his hand cut off, by order of his eventual love interest. (hide spoiler)]...more
Absolutely fantastic poly space opera with great characters and really thoughtful world building. Also, a very clever take on a classic concept that wAbsolutely fantastic poly space opera with great characters and really thoughtful world building. Also, a very clever take on a classic concept that will be particularly familiar to Highlander fans.
Cassilde and Dai are salvagers, hunting for the relics and technology in the ruins of two previous civilizations, the mysterious Ancestors and the later Successors. Cassilde is also dying, wasting away due to an incurable, always-fatal condition. Cassilde and Dai are struggling to scrape out a living and manage her illness when their former lover Ashe walks back into their lives with a job offer they can't refuse.
Years ago, Ashe left them to fight on the opposite side of an interplanetary war, and Cassilde and Dai are both still angry at Ashe and mourning the lost relationship. I really love how Cassilde and Dai and Ashe's relationships are written. They each have their own relationship with Ashe that is distinct from the relationship of the three of them together. And while they both love him still, they both give the other leeway to forgive him or not in their own time and own way.
Also, Ashe's seeming-betrayal is more nuanced and complicated than I expected, less a betrayal than a case of conflicting cultural expectations and commitments.
Another clever piece of world building here: one of the reasons Cassilde and Dai are struggling financially is that Ashe is a Scholar, trained to interpret and record the ancient wreckage as part of the salvage operation. All legal salvagers are required to work with a Scholar, and Scholars are expensive and in high demand. I loved this detail. Archaeology and recording the past is important, and should be an important part of this kind of world.
So, Ashe shows up with a job, and also a new knowledge acquired during the war of the mysterious, thought-mythical Gifts of the Ancestors, which confer near-instant healing and potential immortality on those who receive them. Like Cassilde. But there's a price. (There's always a price.) Gifts wear off. And once you've received one, the impetus to search and seek out more is impossible to resist. Also, gifts can be stolen, although not without damage or death to the person being stolen from.
And so Cassilde and Dai are pulled into an underworld they never knew existed, while adapting to the complications of new biology, and also tracing down a mystery linked to exactly how the Ancestors's civilization came to its end.
I really appreciated how Cassilde's illness and then acquisition of her Gift was handled. It's not a simple decision, and it's not just a miracle cure, it's a difficult choice with very real drawbacks.
I just really, really loved this book and am very much looking forward to more in the universe.
I ADORED this book. OMG did I adore this book. It's a queer, poly, found-family story about two people who have absolutely nothing in common - except I ADORED this book. OMG did I adore this book. It's a queer, poly, found-family story about two people who have absolutely nothing in common - except for their complete chaos muppet of a boyfriend, who has gone missing.
Layla is a sensible, married pathologist with a wife, two small children, and a comfortable place within her local community. Nat is a blue-haired, genderqueer musician with a decidedly non-normative queer community, and no interest in marriage, children, or assimilation into mainstream society.
The only thing they have in common is Meraud. Brilliant, enigmatic, magical Meraud. A human who spent the first five years of his life in Fey, Meraud is beloved and exasperating to our two narrators in equal measure. I suspect anyone who's ever fallen in love with a natural chaos-agent will recognize themself in this book. I certainly did.
But as the only two people capable of rescuing Meraud from his own stupid mistake, Layla and Nat will have to work together, find common ground, spend some time pretending to be engaged to be married, and maybe, hesitantly, forge a simply lovely, complicated friendship that's not dependent on their mutual relationships with Meraud.
I loved the setting of this book, which is very much our present only with small, everyday magic. Our heroes are ear-wormed by catchy secular Christmas carols (a delightful running joke), contend with overly-friendly Anglican ministers and church busy-bodies, and search for magical information on Reddit. It feels just wonderfully lived in and alive. And part of that was the people, there is a real community of people in this story, and they are so richly and diversely characterized every one of them feels like they have their own richly complex story just waiting to be told. ...more
This one's for my monsterfuckers, you know who you are. Sullen college kid/witch Tom is stuck at his aunt's for the summer, where he meets 1000 year oThis one's for my monsterfuckers, you know who you are. Sullen college kid/witch Tom is stuck at his aunt's for the summer, where he meets 1000 year old incorporeal house-demon Simon who shouldn't be attracted to humans at all but suddenly really, really is.
And then there's sex. A LOT of sex. Very hot sex. And magic. Because Tom has some very firm ideas about exactly what kind of monsterfucking he would like and goddamn is Simon going to deliver....more
This is a sweet, fluffy read with rather more depth and rather more queerness than I expected.
A regency fantasy set in an alt-England where women leadThis is a sweet, fluffy read with rather more depth and rather more queerness than I expected.
A regency fantasy set in an alt-England where women lead the government, only men are magicians, and faerie is very close indeed. If you're really into worldbuilding this might not be the book for you, but if you're okay with just enough clever worldbuilding to hang the characters and their relationships on, then I highly recommend it.
It's a lot, but it's all balanced quite nicely, with all the plots integrated well and a great cast of characters.
What this book is really about Cassandra figuring out who she is and what her place in the world is, when the passion and vocation that has driven her for her whole life is suddenly closed to her. And starting to see all the things she missed, because she was so focused on her goals she put them ahead of everything and everyone else in her life.
Cassandra's relationship with her brother and sister-in-law is wonderful, and her rekindled relationship with her ex is handled quite well.
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