A Feather So Black starts out wobbly, but by the end of the first act it finds its footing and really takes off, providing a very fantastical and romaA Feather So Black starts out wobbly, but by the end of the first act it finds its footing and really takes off, providing a very fantastical and romantic story with plenty of intrigue, wit, chemistry, danger, sorrow, action, and sacrifice to make the page count (close to 500) totally worth it; not only that, but loose threads, ponderous angles, and the ongoing storyline are definitely enticing enough reasons to be interested in the sequel without the author having to resort to a cliffhanger ending.
Orbit Books has been publishing some bangers in the last couple of years, so I was excited for A Feather So Black because the plot synopsis seemed to speak of a retelling blend of Swan Lake (my favorite ballet) and the fairy tale colloquially known as The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and then we toss in some fae stuff. (This isn’t an insult, because fae stuff can encompass some of the best stuff). It does all of these things extremely well. Where it stuttered was in the initial engagement and worldbuilding.
There are a lot–A LOT–of books like A Feather So Black in the marketplace right now. Maybe not with the same plot, but with a lot of the same themes and a lot of similar characters. In order to work on every level, romantasy novels need to snag us readers from the get. I’m not talking about spice or love: I’m talking about hooking us on your main protagonist. But we’ve met Fia before, in lots of different books but with different names. And we’ve met her in a similar manner before too. We’ve even met her best friend/former lover as well, even if he had a different name. It made the first act feel rather formulaic, even timeworn in a book where the rest felt rather bold and emotionally fresh.
It won’t stop me from eagerly awaiting the sequel!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Fairy Tale Retelling/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series ...more
As far as variations on Sleeping Beauty go, I enjoyed this secret twin, LGBTQ+ variation of the tale. You’d think I’d get sick of Sleeping Beauty reteAs far as variations on Sleeping Beauty go, I enjoyed this secret twin, LGBTQ+ variation of the tale. You’d think I’d get sick of Sleeping Beauty retellings, but nope! It continues to be one of my top fairy tale retelling/remixing/variation starting points for a plot even after all these years. In the case of A River of Golden Bones, it helps that the infamous Sleeping Beauty isn’t in the driver’s seat and the actual FMC is on a journey of self-discovery with a whole lot of burning questions in their metaphorical pocket.
As the first book in a new series, you do have to put up with some of the typical hang-ups that come with a new series: exposition, worldbuilding, magic systems, hierarchy, cultures, politics, and since this is a wolf shifter romance you also need to learn how the shifter world works in this universe and how it interacts with the humans. All of that, plus the plot, is a lot to cram into 400 pages. Mulford does an admirable job of it, but it’s not the smoothest ride it could be.
One of the best ways Mulford engages with exposition is via having our FMC and supporting characters join up with a band of traveling musicians. As they ride together across the lands in the musician’s wagon, the shifters learn more about the humans and the way the world works for those who aren’t wolves. It’s a great way of showing and not telling in a manner which is subtle and completely connected to the plot. If you didn’t think to look at it as exposition you might not even notice it.
I had a lot of trouble with the ending, because it seemed far too convenient for my tastes, but it’s still a really entertaining and engaging read. I will be waiting with anticipation for the next book!
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without compensation. Thank you.
File Under: Book Series/Fairy Tale Retellings/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/Found Family/LGBTQ Fantasy/LGBTQ Romance/Shifter Romance/OwnVoices/Spice Level 1 ...more
I absolutely adored Samit Basu’s previous novel, The City Inside, and while The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport doesn’t quite meet the bar set by that novel itI absolutely adored Samit Basu’s previous novel, The City Inside, and while The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport doesn’t quite meet the bar set by that novel it’s still a phenomenally clever, enormously creative, and endearing novel.
The story is told from the point of view of Moku, a long-lost piece of alien tech known as a story-bot. His function is to observe, record, and then assemble people’s lives into stories. He was found at the bottom of one of Shantiport’s many polluted rivers, down in the muck inside of a vault by one of the book’s other main characters, Bador. Bador is a bot himself: even though he has the visage of a monkey and has eyemojis instead of eyes, he’s the little brother of a human girl named Lina. Lina, Bador, and their mother have all been under tight surveillance ever since their family patriarch disappeared under the auspices of being a dissenter. In the years since then, Lina’s been working hard to ferret out where their father hid all his hidden tech around the city and Bador has been reluctantly helping her while growing more rebellious and outspoken about bot rights and his dreams of becoming a space hero and getting out of Shantiport.
This is an Aladdin retelling, but it’s not a tightly-woven one. Basu admits in the afterword that the characters kind of went and did their own thing somewhere along the way and I assume he had to keep pulling them back in line with his original ideas. That’s totally okay. Most fairy tale retellings have to have an elasticity to the weave in order to let the author’s interpretation flow through it. I think the problem is that along with the Aladdin retelling, there’s a huge subplot to this book with bot-fighting (in the blurb you can see the nod to Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, which I’ve never read), and those bot-fights, along with the parts of the plot that come with them, take up huge chunks of page time that felt a lot like filler to me. While the bot-fighting is an important part of Bador’s journey as a character (and Moku’s, too, to an extent), I came away feeling that a lot of it was just empty page time.
The great thing about having a story-bot as a narrator is reliability. Moku is honest, to a fault. Honest and honorable. He’s sweet, caring, anxious, brave, excited, curious, studious, reflective, and capable of great amounts of emotion. At first he’s so limited in what he wants to do, thinks he can do, and thinks he needs to do, but as the books goes on Moku evolves as he begins to care about Bador and Lina as if they’re his family. He’s idealistic, romantic, and a little naive because all he knows are stories…and humans are messy. Moku is honestly my favorite character in the whole book and the only one who made me cry.
There’s a great layering in this book about the differences between generations on how to solve problems: whether to solve it in small, incremental steps and hand off the power to the next generations and trust them to make the best decisions or to make big, sweeping changes and hope the dust settles where it should. It’s about raising your children to think big and to dream big dreams and then telling them, “Hold up! I know we said to dream big, but you can’t just change everything just like that! It’s too much change! You have to think smaller and slower!” is okay or if it’s time for you to stand aside and trust that you raised your kids to do the right thing. The power has to be handed over sometime. Small changes don’t work forever. Some changes just can’t wait for a committee hearing.
Samit Basu is a masterful storyteller and an immaculate worldbuilder. He doesn’t miss anything in his books. Shantiport is a sinking city that was once beautiful. It’s been colonized too many times and has changed ruling clans again and again. It’s besieged by typhoons and pollution and mostly ruled by criminals. Basu gives you all the vibes, helps you paint the pictures in your mind, and lets you feel the humidity, the squelching mud, the glittering holographs, the plasma swords, and more. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read even though it's a little too long and a little too messy. I still highly recommend it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Dystopian/Fairy Tale Retelling/Science Fiction ...more
T. Kingfisher plus a Sleeping Beauty remix. Sign me up. I’m here for it. Mostly because I love Sleeping Beauty, and some of it because I really wantedT. Kingfisher plus a Sleeping Beauty remix. Sign me up. I’m here for it. Mostly because I love Sleeping Beauty, and some of it because I really wanted to see what Kingfisher was going to do with it. I wasn’t disappointed; in fact, I was absolutely, positively delighted. I think this is my favorite Kingfisher novella thus far.
It all starts with an underpinning question that can twist the whole tale on its head: there’s two reasons anyone would go to such lengths to hide a sleeping princess behind a huge mess of thickets of thorns, masses of briars, a forest of trees, and tons of huge bushes. It’s either to keep other people out, or to keep something in. Kingfisher wants us to contemplate the latter: What if Sleeping Beauty is the dangerous one?
Somehow this premise excited me so much I was almost giddy as I read this charming and somehow sweet (I don’t know why my clock ticks this way, but it does and I don’t question it) fairy tale told from the point of view of Toadling, a changeling who was actually meant to be the real princess she’s now guarding as she sleeps. Toadling doesn’t have much magic in her, so almost everything she has goes into keeping the changeling child that’s disguised as a human asleep and trying to make sure no one comes near the hidden tower where the small child eternally slumbers. Not even Toadling goes near her too often, for fear the magic will become unstable and wake her.
The world building in this story is just so unbelievably detailed and rich, even though it mostly takes place in one place. There are interludes as Toadling tells her story to a traveler from (what was then called) Anatolia, as it seems he’s determined to get through the briar thickets and the hedge of thorns and up to the hidden tower to see the princess. Toadling doesn’t have it in her to hurt practically anyone, especially not a nice person who’s the first person she’s spoken to in over 200 years. She thinks it’s important to impart to him the history of who the princess is and why she’s in the tower so he really decides against trying to break the spell. While these could be considered info dumps, they’re really more of a fairy tale inside a fairy tale: two stories nested within one another, and they’re both fascinating and well-written.
This is what’s so vital about novellas: Knowing how to pack the most punch with less than 200 words to work with. Despite this being a novella, this felt like a whole and complete story. Nothing was rushed, nothing felt missing, and it was such a satisfying read. It’s well worth the five stars I rated it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Fantasy/Folklore/Fairy Tale Retelling/Folklore/Found Family/Historical Fantasy/Novella ...more
In “For the Wolf”, I had complaints about the depth of the characters and the prose, which could lean towards weak. In its other half, “For the ThroneIn “For the Wolf”, I had complaints about the depth of the characters and the prose, which could lean towards weak. In its other half, “For the Throne”, my complaint is solely that the first half of the book seems to move almost glacially slow. Not slow enough for me to lose interest or for me to become disengaged (simply because that pace was consistent (meaning it wasn’t an uneven pace) and because I knew it wouldn’t last), but enough for me to become somewhat frustrated and to be slightly disappointed. For some reason I expected this book to move faster than the first. I expected the Shadowlands to be, well, a little more chaotic. A little darker. A little more sinister.
Thank goodness we had interludes from Red, Raffe, and the others every now and again to break up the bleakness. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them.
Thankfully, the issues with prose and characterizations between “For the Wolf” and this book seemed to have been resolved. It shows how Whitten has grown as a writer, because we get more depth and layers to each character and some great passages evoking fantastic imagery. Whitten had a talent at showing and not telling when it came to exposition that was evident from the start, and it continues into this book, which I’m immensely grateful for. Hearing someone drone on and on about exposition in this book would’ve been intolerable.
The immense talent at magic systems and world-building continues, also. Juxtaposition and eventual entropy? You’re speaking my love language. Philosophical questions about whether or not one can live without a soul, or even what a soul even is? Slay me. What does it mean to be human or god? Are gods even gods or are gods only gods in their own minds? I could think these thoughts the whole day through and be a happy camper.
I enjoyed both books immensely, and I highly recommend you don’t give up on “For the Throne”, even if you have a hard time holding on through the first half.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for allowing me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
Why retell one folktale when you could mashup quite a few of them and mix in some vastly different mythology while you're at it? I tend to like this mWhy retell one folktale when you could mashup quite a few of them and mix in some vastly different mythology while you're at it? I tend to like this methodology of storytelling when it comes to fantasy because it reminds me of fusion food. Call it fusion fantasy, if you will. Like Korean street tacos or chicken tikka masala pizza... but with folklore/fairy tales and mythology.
I don't know what Whitten's intentions were, but here's what I saw when I was reading "For the Wolf": a dollop of "Snow White and Rose Red" (not the Brother's Grimm version), a glug of "Beauty and the Beast" (again, not the Grimm version), a drizzle of "Cupid and Psyche", a dash of the medieval pagan version of "The Green Man" (the one who is a sentient tree), a judicious sprinkle of the version of Merlin's mythology where he's imprisoned in the enchanted forest of Broceliand (but without the seduction aspect), and just a pinch of the oral tradition known as "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Whether or not there's other inspirations hidden in there or I'm reading more into it than Whitten intended, I don't know. I'm just telling you what I saw.
Whatever it is, whatever Whitten intended? It's dang good. I mean, it's really good. It's not the best darker fantasy book I've read this year (I know it came out last year, but I read it this week because its sequel, "For the Throne" came out this week and I'm reading and reviewing it too), but it is definitely up there in terms of world-building and magic systems. Where it falters, for me, is in the characters and the prose. While the prose isn't weak, per se, it could be stronger. While the characters aren't weak, they could be stronger. I was blown away by the magic systems (really, earth-based magic systems are highly under-utilized in fantasy, so to see it here is so refreshing), and the world-building is top-notch. But that's like saying the production design and special effects in a movie are the best things about a movie. Without the characters and the script, the movie isn't going to be completely whole. That's what I wish this book had: a complete package.
But it sure was worth every single page, nonetheless....more
I don’t normally like to review books that are in any way related to the holidays, because I don’t even like to read them, but Tordotcom was kind enouI don’t normally like to review books that are in any way related to the holidays, because I don’t even like to read them, but Tordotcom was kind enough to invite me to read this title and I gave it a shot because it was a horror novella, and I am quite a fan of those.
I’ve read so many excellent horror novellas. The horror genre is ripe with novellas and short stories. This novella, while slightly entertaining, is neither original nor special. It’s interesting and diverting enough to read, but I don’t think it was interesting or diverting enough to warrant its own wide release. Worse yet, it was rather predictable (or really predictable, depending on what kind of reader you are).
The prose was solid, but the characters were lackluster. The story was intriguing, but the execution was not. The whole thing is just a bit of fun, but not a whole lot of substance.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for inviting me to view this title early for review. Due to the 3 star or lower rating this review will not appear in social media or on bookseller websites. ...more
I debated my rating of this book for a little while: was it going to be 4 stars or five stars? I really wasn’t sure at first. Half of me said 4 stars I debated my rating of this book for a little while: was it going to be 4 stars or five stars? I really wasn’t sure at first. Half of me said 4 stars because I’m not a patient person and it took me two days to read this book because I had to put it down about halfway through on the first day because I was kind of bored and needed a change of pace. The other half said, yeah, but then you picked it back up and the second half had the same lovely prose and compelling story as the first, but then it started to weave its way into your brain and heart and now it’s tugging on you from all directions, so how could you do anything but rate it five stars?
As you can see, I ended up rating it five stars.
Strangely, one of the reasons I connected with the back half of this book so much is because it brought up the subject of how trauma and other environmental factors can affect DNA. Geneticists have already proven that intergenerational poverty ends up having a lasting effect on those genetic markers, so why not trauma? If an event is huge enough to change something in our genetics, could that genetic change take hold enough to last through generations? It’s one of the most fascinating and terrifying thought experiments I can think of.
In her acknowledgements, Nethercott mentions Libba Bray’s Diviners series and Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows” as influences on crafting her story, especially in her pacing. Well, I’ve never read the Diviners, but I’m a huge fan of “Six of Crows”, and I can definitely see the influence of Leigh Bardugo in the book, though not in the pacing. This book didn’t hook me and drag me along for the ride like “Six of Crows”, though I can see how matching pacing with the introduction of new characters or the changing of settings could be traced back to Bardugo and her Crows. Nethercott also credits Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, honestly? I really think just about every writer in the urban fantasy genre should be thanking Buffy in their books. Heck! Every fantasy writer who has a strong female protagonist should probably thank Buffy. I don’t know where pop culture or media as a whole would be today if it were not for that show.
So, listen: if you’re looking for a quick read, this book won’t do you any favors. It’s not meant to be a quick read. I really think Nethercott means for you to sit down with this book and pay attention to it. Don’t take it lightly. It’s not some throwaway trend. This is a history lesson, a philosophical essay, and Russian folklore wrapped in dark, urban fantasy and magical realism. It’s not a story about family, but a story about survival. It’s not a story about those who lived, but about those who died. I think, most of all, this story is a warning: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Worse than that: history erased is history unheard is history primed to happen again without warning.
Thanks to NetGalley and Anchor for granting me access to this title.
Please note this review is being written as part of a series of backdated ARC reviews that were due earlier in the year but, for one reason or another, I wasn’t able to get to them by the publication date.
File Under: 5 Star Books/Dark Fantasy/Ghost Story/Magical Realism/Standalone Fantasy/Folklore/Mythology/Russian History/Historical Fiction/Urban Fantasy ...more
What a clever book! I went into this with some trepidation, considering how much I’ve disliked a lot of the remixes and retellings that have been publWhat a clever book! I went into this with some trepidation, considering how much I’ve disliked a lot of the remixes and retellings that have been published in the last few years. In all honesty, the only reason I made an exception to read this one is because of how much I’ve always been a fan of everything Robin Hood. From Erroll Flynn to a cartoon fox to Kevin Costner in a really bad accent, I’ve always unabashedly loved the story of Robin Hood.
So this book was a lot better than I expected, even though it wasn’t perfect.
It’s such a witty book, with chapter titles that made me laugh and a good sense of humor. The book didn’t take itself too seriously, which is always a plus when it comes to a topic as heavy as the Crusades. The characters were absolutely some of the coolest when it comes to gender-bending such a classic story.
It’s a very, very well-researched book too! It’s obvious the author did their due diligence when it came to researching the Crusades and the Middle East of close to a millennium ago. I was impressed by the accurate geographical knowledge employed and how devoted to getting the religious components of the war as correct as possible on both sides. It was a holy war, after all, and we all know how messy things can get when religion gets involved.
Now, I do have a pretty hefty complaint with the narrator, our “Robin Hood”, breaking the literary fourth wall to talk to us readers directly. The book may be in first-person POV, but when the narrator all of a sudden takes to talking to us readers in little asides it jars you a bit out of the story.
All in all, it was a difficult job well done.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
I was really looking forward to this title, it being one of a handful of fantasy novels being released this spring centered on folk tales and/or mythoI was really looking forward to this title, it being one of a handful of fantasy novels being released this spring centered on folk tales and/or mythology from the Far East. And I really could’ve loved it… if it weren’t for the narrative POV and expensive use of footnotes.
The narrative POV was unusual for a fantasy novel, and while some people seem to have enjoyed it despite that point, I simply couldn’t get used to it and it destroyed a great deal of the enjoyment I’d otherwise get from the novel. It was distracting to the extreme and made the book harder for me to read.
I have an opinion on footnotes in fiction: they shouldn’t be there. If they have to be there, they should be minimal. This book, though? There are so many footnotes, and they completely slow the pace of the story every time I had to stop and read them. I don’t like the flow of my reading to be interrupted constantly. If I want to read footnotes I’ll turn to one of my many nonfiction books.
That makes two huge strikes against the general vibe and enjoyment of the book, and since they were both so omnipresent in the novel I couldn’t vibe with the book, get into the flow of the story, or enjoy the narrative. It’s a shame, really, because otherwise I think I could’ve really enjoyed it.
Thanks to Clarion and NetGalley for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. As per my personal policy, this review will not be posted to social media due to the 3 Star rating. ...more
I love the mythological and folkloric tales of the Middle East and Northern Africa. This book borrows heavily from “One ThouReal Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I love the mythological and folkloric tales of the Middle East and Northern Africa. This book borrows heavily from “One Thousand and One Nights”, especially the tale of Scheherazade and her storytelling skills, and also uses the method of embedding stories within stories as part of the plot, which “One Thousand and One Nights” also does. Predictably, what I enjoyed most about this book was the mythology, the world-building, and the story-with-a-story methodology employed by Abdullah. The rest of the book? Well, I’ve seen jinn, ifrits, cunning and clever orphaned merchant/thief women, harsh princes, and soft princes in this sort of setting done a lot better before. I also have a great deal of concerns about this overall story arc sustaining itself over a whole trilogy when I felt it was almost the right length for one book and might be stretching itself when it was done with the second book.
I don’t think you’d be wasting your time with this book. It’s entertaining, the mythology is fascinating, and the world building is fantastic. It’s just that the characters aren’t in any way original and are very predictable. Just concentrate on the magic and the world around the characters and you’ll do fine.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
First off: One of these stars is fully meant for applauding Lillie Lainoff for not only attempting, but truly succeeding in writing a fully-developed First off: One of these stars is fully meant for applauding Lillie Lainoff for not only attempting, but truly succeeding in writing a fully-developed female protagonist with a visible disability that reads as authentic and as close as possible to the experiences a disabled female would surely have faced in 18th century France. This novel not only had to consider the illness Tania was born with, including all of its symptoms, but also integrate the ableist and monstrous sentiments disabled people prior to the medical revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries faced en masse. Not only did Lainoff account for the attitudes and prejudice toward the disabled (especially females) in such times, but she also managed to do a great job at reminding us how these awful biases have only continued over time.
The writing of this book was solid and the plot interesting. Sadly, I couldn’t get into it. It moved entirely too slow for me in the beginning and felt entirely too predictable in the end. I absolutely loved the fact this novel was so female-centric, especially concerning friendships. If you are looking for a book to pass the literary equivalent of the Bechdel Test, this one certainly fits the bill.
I wish I could feel better about how I am reviewing this book, but the best I can say is I am here for all the books trying something new and trying to put disabled characters in primary roles. I only wish it could’ve been a more entertaining read for me.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. As per personal policy, this review will not appear in social media or on any bookseller websites due to the 3 star or lower rating. ...more
“Juniper & Thorn” is a very loose retelling of a German fairy tale originally called “The Juniper Tree” (it’s also sometimes known as “The Almond Tree“Juniper & Thorn” is a very loose retelling of a German fairy tale originally called “The Juniper Tree” (it’s also sometimes known as “The Almond Tree”). It was sanitized somewhat by those pesky Grimm Brothers once they picked it up and put it in their collection, but the very loose roots of this wonderful new adult (NOT young adult) dark fantasy (at times it verges close to horror fantasy but doesn’t quite get there in whole) Ava Reid has written come from a much simpler but no less horrific story involving a vengeful parent, a juniper tree, a dead child, a bird transformation, and a girl named Marlinchen. Ava Reid took the seeds (pardon the nature pun) of that story and crafted a gaslamp fantasy set in the same world of her book “The Wolf and the Woodsman” (AKA - Eastern Europe, the Caucasus Region, and Russia) that hooked me immediately, reeled me in effortlessly, and kept me on the line for the whole ride with no complaints. I was happy to read page after page of this beautifully, lovingly crafted story that brings me the beauty of a person’s first trip to the ballet (I’m a huge fan), mentions the fairy tale of “The Swan Princess”, which is the basis for my favorite ballet, “Swan Lake”, and doesn’t shy away from the darkest parts of fairy tales for the sake of wider audience appeal.
Fairy tales were initially not meant to serve as stories to entertain small children to the tune of “... and they lived happily ever after”. After all, fairies themselves weren’t considered to be good or evil. They just were. And they possessed an extreme amount of power. Fairy tales were stories meant to serve as warnings to small children about the evils and trials the world outside might put them through. They were cautionary tales. Tolkien once argued that if you were going to keep the dark parts of fairy tales from children then you shouldn’t tell them the tale at all. Do I think my 7 year-old nephew needs to hear about ritualistic cannibalism? Nope. Do I think he’d think it’s wicked cool? Right now, yeah. He’s at that age. But my niece at 7? She would’ve been terrified. That’s why I love these fairy tale and folklore retellings by authors like Ava Reid and Hannah Whitten (among others): they do their research into those original tales and the permutations of them over time, collate and matrix the tales to find out where they differ and where they’re the same, find out what works and what doesn’t so they can sort the wheat from the chaff, and then they put their own spin on the distillation of the tale. It’s the fruits of literary phylogeny.
Throughout all this meticulous storycraft, Reid’s wonderful prose shines like a diamond. She has a fantastic eye for setting a scene without lapsing into being overly descriptive. She gives us just enough of a visual outline that we can fill the rest in easily with our minds. She keeps our senses engaged: smells, tastes, colors, textures, awareness of how the body looks and moves are all kept in mind and used as part of the story in a way that reminds me a bit of Erin Morgenstern. Best of all, Reid uses her plot devices to deliver the exposition instead of using the characters themselves. This accomplishes my favorite thing: showing and not telling us what’s going on. That’s true literary magic right there.
I highly recommend it. It’s dark, violent, fantastical, romantic, tragic, whimsical, crude, and may even trigger some readers. But it’s also magical in word and deed.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
“This book is going to make a great movie someday.”
That’s what I kept saying to myself, inside my head, as I read this book. This book was simply made “This book is going to make a great movie someday.”
That’s what I kept saying to myself, inside my head, as I read this book. This book was simply made to be a perfect romcom movie. I don’t mean that as an insult. I’m not saying that Lindsey Selk sat down one day, cracked her knuckles and said, “I’m just going to write a romantic comedy novel that was destined to be a Netflix movie someday.” No. I’m simply saying this book is brilliant and effortless enough of a rom-com book that it could be a successful movie, making a ton of money without even losing one false set of eyelashes in the process.
Admittedly, it does start out just a little bit slow. I thought it might lose me there for a second. But once it cranks into gear, there’s no escaping this book. It just carries you away as all great escapist fantasy rom-coms should. It’s a Cinderella tale with a twist, and a fairy godmother in the shape of a makeup artist. There’s a ball and a secret identity, but no lost shoes.
There are a large amount of laugh-out-loud moments, particularly in the first half of the book, but there is a good deal of screwball comedy and madcap adventures in the latter half. There are vulnerable moments, sentimental moments, outright sad moments, and moments that might just make you see red. Mostly, though, this is a book that will make you sigh and smile.
And then you might think this might be a great movie someday. . ...more
This is going to sound so, so, so cliche, but one of the primary thoughts I had while reading this book was that infamous quote from “The Dark Knight”This is going to sound so, so, so cliche, but one of the primary thoughts I had while reading this book was that infamous quote from “The Dark Knight”. You know the one: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
“A Mirror Mended”, as if you weren’t aware, is the follow-up novella to the absolutely brilliant “A Spindle Splintered”, which introduces us to Zinnia, a young woman just about to turn 21 and who is quickly on her way to dying of a terminal disorder/syndrome/malady she developed in the womb from pollution in her hometown. Basically, she’s got only weeks to live. But her lifelong obsession with the tale of Sleeping Beauty and her degree in folklore leads to her bestie throwing her a themed 21st birthday party, complete with a spinning wheel she found at a flea market. And what do you know? Prick your finger on a spindle for funsies and all of a sudden she’s hurtled across space and time like a fairy tale version of Doctor Who (yes, I am repeating a joke from this book) and discovers that there is, essentially, a Sleeping Beauty multiverse. (Insert the rest of the plot of that book here.)
Well, here in “A Mirror Mended”, I guess you can kind of tell right away that Zinnia isn’t in Sleeping Beauty multiverse land anymore, right? You’d be correct! She’s in a bathroom at a wedding, looks in a mirror in the bathroom, and there’s a woman asking her for help. Before she knows it, she’s being pulled through the mirror and–lo and behold–there’s a multiverse full of Snow Whites too! Only Harrow doesn’t focus on the princess in this installment. Zinnia was pulled through the mirror by who we usually identify as the “Evil Queen”.
There’s a whole lot going on in this fast and clever read, but it never feels like Harrow is cramming in too much for us readers to be expected to extrapolate on our own or to keep up. She doesn’t just throw information and plot at us and expect it to stick as she hurries on her way to the next scene. It’s simply that these books don’t take place over a long period of time. It’s maybe a day or two. Most of that is spent traveling with Zinnia’s inner narrative to provide exposition, entertain us, and to keep us thinking about what Harrow is trying to convey. Some of it is spent on emotional and sometimes witty dialogue scenes that serve as social and cultural commentary, and maybe a glop of it is spent on action scenes.
Both of the books in this series spend a lot of time with the idea of agency and crafting your own narrative, and that brings me back to “The Dark Knight” quote. Zinnia comes to the realization early on that the Evil Queen was once just a girl whose father made her decisions for her and she obeyed like she should. Then she became a queen who obeyed a king she didn’t love and then became the object of his anger when she could not produce that which he required of her. She had lived so long doing the things everyone told her were the right things to do that when she had the chance to do something for herself she found she couldn’t give that independence up… making her the villain of her own story. Zinnia herself finds out that even though she has been traveling throughout the multiverse trying to save as many Sleeping Beauties as possible from their terrible fates (if they wished to be saved) while simultaneously outrunning her own disease that will eventually kill her if she stays in her own timeline for too long, there are serious repercussions to her actions that are going to make her into a villain before she knows it if she doesn’t stop playing the hero. She has to write herself a new narrative for a new life in her own timeline and let her story end where it may. It may not end happily ever after, but may it end happily.
Overall, I liked “A Mirror Mended” slightly less than “A Spindle Splintered”, but that could be my Sleeping Beauty bias (yes, Princess Aurora is my favorite and she always belongs in the blue dress). But both books read back-to-back (I read the first one yesterday) is a really stunning read altogether. If you haven’t read these yet because they look like children’s books, I can assure you they are not. I highly, highly recommend them.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Tordotcom for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
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