source: Tor.com

Castle Waiting, Vol I by Linda Medley

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Started: 2/17/21
Finished: 2/21/21

I heard about this one in a Tor.com article about re-imagined fairy tales. This is a graphic novel with a fairy tale premise and references to ALL the fairy tales. I just finished the first volume, and I’m looking for the next one. It’s telling the back stories of these characters who have moved into Sleeping Beauty’s castle, long after Sleeping Beauty woke up and moved out. What’s appealing is that, so far, these are good people, and they have such nice stories with happy endings.

Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine

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Started: 1/3/21
Finished: 1/11/21

Last in the Great Library series. It ends well, but there’s a magical element that feels…not shoehorned in exactly, but maybe not as well-developed as everything else. These books have a lot going on, and I think the series could have ended without it. BUT I liked them very much, and I’m planning to read some of the author’s other stuff.

Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett

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Started: 11/17/20
Finished: 12/2/20

I almost gave up on this one halfway through.  It starts out really good, in a future after a climate disaster, when everyone has their minimum needs met, money is social capital, and everyone basically lives in the Matrix.  Our main character is trying to help someone who may or may not be a sentient AI, her dad is a conspiracy theorist, she’s a superstar gamer, and there’s a police officer after her client.  Super good, I was super involved.  And then, exactly at the 50% mark, they threw in a curve ball that almost made me throw the book across the room.  (For perspective, the last time I actually threw a book was at the end of The Day After Tomorrow, when they brought out Hitler’s cryogenically frozen head.  This wasn’t THAT bad.)

I kept reading, and I got hooked again fairly quickly so I could forgive the weird plot twist that messed with a perfectly good AI/Matrix book.

I know it’s not clear, but I DID like it, and I DO recommend it.

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

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Started: 11/14/20
Finished: 11/17/20

This is the first book in the Great Library series, and it came highly recommended.  I’ve been burned (heh) by that before, so I didn’t have particularly high hopes, especially when I realized that our main characters were all teenagers (sigh), but what a wonderful surprise this one turned out to be!  It starts out with one premise, immediately makes you rethink it, and then gradually gives you a whole different perspective, and I loved it.

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories by Karen Russell

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Started: 11/14/20
Gave up: 11/14/20

I read the first short story in this collection and started the second, and no, thank you.  These are not for me.  A little too graphic, a little to uncomfortable, a little too “I’m not sure what happened here”, and I decided to move on.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Started: 9/18/20
Gave up: 9/19/20

I gave up on this one, but not through any fault of its own.  I just wasn’t in the mood. It’s set in early 20th century Mexico, and maybe it’s fantasy and maybe it’s magical realism (which I generally do NOT like), but there are gods and bargains and LOTS of discussions of towns and their histories, and yeah.  Not in the mood.  It has really good reviews, so I feel bad about giving up, but not that bad.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

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Started: 9/9/20
Finished: 9/18/20

I was really looking forward to this one – it was nominated for a Hugo this year, I loved the short story she was nominated for last year, and I liked the short story she was nominated for this year.  The book didn’t start well for me.  It was interesting, and the premise is interesting, but the writing felt…amateurish.  It got better (I think), but the book within a book thing took too long to pay off.  I did eventually get hooked, but I found myself thinking about giving up on it a couple of times.  If I had read it between the ages of 10 and 18, maybe, I probably would have loved it.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

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Started: 8/28/20
Gave up: 8/30/20

It feels familiar at the beginning, and I wasn’t in the mood for another same-old story, but I’d heard good things about it and the premise is fascinating, so I kept going. Then there were hints of something really dark and awful going on that the heroine is going to find out, and okay, I’m interested, but she doesn’t follow up!  Or she’s more interested in the same-old!  Are you kidding me?  And then I found out that it’s the first in a series, so I’m not even going to find everything out by the end of the book, and you know, I’m making up my mind to quit reading as I’m typing this.

Yup, I just read a few more pages and then skimmed a few more and NOTHING IS HAPPENING.  Next!

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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Started: 8/24/20
Finished: 8/28/20

I liked the beginning, and then I got bored, and then I got interested again, and then I was disappointed.  The book ends like it’s going to have a sequel, but I don’t think it’s planned to be a series, so it just feels unfinished.  It’s supposed to be this feminist-thriller-climate change-body horror variation of Lord of the Flies, and some of that comes through, but then it just ends.

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

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Started: 8/22/20
Finished: 8/24/20

This was a good book, YA, and a hard read.  The teenagers all feel very real, even though I was nothing like them in high school, and neither were most (if not all) if the kids I knew, but hey, times are different.  It’s emotional and disturbing, and I couldn’t put it down.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Started: 8/15/20
Finished: 8/22/20

I wanted to love this book because I loved the one before it, but I was SO confused by it.  It seemed to be rewriting the first book in flashback, with different characters and different events, and while that does get explained, it was confusing, not gripping.  And then at around 70%, it got 1000 times more fun for me, for reasons I will not explain because spoilers, but that wasn’t enough. And then it ended, and what?  I don’t know what happened.  I don’t understand the world this series is set in.  I love the character of Gideon from the first book, and I really feel for Harrow in both books, and I WILL read the third book because I just have to know, but I was disappointed not to love this one as much as the first.

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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Started: 7/12/20
Finished: 7/15/20

I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this one, but the one time I tried a Max Gladstone book, I couldn’t get into it.  That turned out to apply to this novella, too, even though he had a co-author.  The premise is really cool, but I seriously considered just putting it down and walking away.  The writing was not working for me.  I got involved eventually, and I think I liked it…?   Interesting, but not really my speed.