Thank you to dear Ava for sending me an early copy to blurb. Seriously, I love you.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was easily one of my most anticipated reads comThank you to dear Ava for sending me an early copy to blurb. Seriously, I love you.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was easily one of my most anticipated reads coming out in 2023. I’ve been a fan of Ava Reid since I read their debut as an advanced copy, and Reid never lets me down. Each book is so different, but all tackle difficult themes in atmospheric fantasy settings, lightened with a warm touch of romance.
A STUDY IN DROWNING follows Llyrian architecture student Effy Sayre as she wins a contest to design a new manor for the estate of the recently deceased author of the novel, “Angharad,” so well-known and beloved that he was named Llyr’s national author.
But designing the house proves more than just a simple challenge. The old manor is falling apart and sinking into the seaside day by day, lorded over by the volatile and domineering son of the author, and Effy meets a rival literature student who seems to have his own motivations for being there beyond his work organizing the personal documents of the author for a biography.
There’s a dark secret that haunts the decrepit manor, all tied back to the author himself and his famous novel, and though it is wrapped up in tales and warnings of the ominous Fairy King, Effy must work together with Preston to bring it to light.
I first read the entirety of this novel all in one night like a woman possessed, and it easily met and exceeded all my expectations and excitement. Then I read it again, and it did the same. It is a force to be reckoned with.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was the perfect atmospheric fall read. I adored its overall tone, to the point it became one of my favorite features of the book. Ava Reid is a master of atmosphere and settings for all of their novels. You pick them up, sink in, and can’t come up for air until you’re done. A STUDY IN DROWNING proved just as immersive and carefully constructed as their previous adult novels, and Reid’s crystalline clear vision is evident from not only the gorgeous prose, but also this novel’s striking setting and vivid imagery. From the university life and cozy libraries to eerie crumbling estates on seaside cliffs that hide long-lost diaries and waterlogged chests and dark figures lurking in shadows, and the persistent damp and creeping threat of destruction in a land where its people fear a great flood they call the Drowning.
My other favorite feature was the novel within the novel, “Angharad.” We get to read quotes as headers for new chapters, and see bits and pieces the many times Effy references it in ASID. The eponymous heroine of the novel was kidnapped by the Fair Folk and forced to wed the evil Fairy King, then tricked and evaded him through various tests and trials until she was able to escape. A love story and a fairy tale and a romantic epic and a tragedy, all in one. “Angharad” was so popular the author was given national acclaim and entombed with honor as a legendary Sleeper, dead figures meant to protect their country from ruin. To Effy, it carried a meaning all its own. “Angharad” was the beating heart of A STUDY IN DROWNING, with everything revolving around it: Effy’s past, the Myrddin estate, Preston’s theories, and even publishing’s dark history. Effy’s love of the novel easily translated off the page, making me wish I could read the whole “Angharad” with a worn, tear-stained copy too. Utilizing stories within stories has become an Ava Reid trademark, and the precision in which Reid uses them to shape, direct, and reflect the heroines of all their novels never fails to blow me away.
And importantly, the newest Ava Reid love interest: Preston Héloury, the literature student who has something to prove. I admire how Ava’s love interests are so starkly different from one another, because of how easy it is to fall into specific types across books. Evike and Gaspar from The Wolf and the Woodsman were enemies to lovers, Marlinchen and Sevas from Juniper & Thorn were forbidden loves, and Effy and Preston were academic rivals to lovers. Preston was a blushing, flustered, driven, argumentative rival with terrible vision. Reading as their exchanges of arguments and bickering grew to understanding and love caused me to make all the delighted titters and chortles. It was tender and gentle and felt so genuine, I was not immune and grew misty-eyed at their declarations and acts for one another. Preston is a Good Boy(TM) and Effy being in a Romance with him was so immensely enjoyable to read.
Reid never shies away from writing about hard topics and important messages, always done with great care and with purpose. A STUDY IN DROWNING tackles a great multitude of things, namely: men taking advantage of women, propaganda, and buried truths regarding the real-world history of the publishing industry. ASID had an off-page Teacher-Student relationship between Effy and one of her professors. It caused a scandal at the school, and made her the target of further bullying aside from her being the only female student. This had ended by the time the book starts, but is referenced in her thoughts on page, as she feels the effects of the incident, bullying, and slut-shaming. Both compelled and coerced by men in positions of power, Effy saw herself within Angharad. ASID also dissects the use of literature as nationalist propaganda, which is what war-torn Llyr uses the Sleepers and their works for, and quite literally upends it within its contents. And beyond that, it triumphantly unearths and exposes the publishing industry’s dark history in regards to women. All of these topics were handled with unwavering conviction, only adding to the long list of this standalone novel’s accomplishments.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was a brilliant novel that was part fantasy, part dark academia, part modern gothic, part horror fairytale, and altogether too gripping to put down. A gothic that manages to be both breath of fresh air and the familiar claustrophobia of the walls closing in around you (or the pressure of the water as you’re pulled under), A STUDY IN DROWNING is an undeniable testament to Ava Reid’s mastery of their trade.
I will continue to think about this novel long after I’ve read it, imagining that decaying, drowning manor and seeing the King of the Fair Folk in the shadows, and remember exactly how much of an impact novels can make upon our lives.
Ava, this is your signal back. May your works always be lighthouse beacons.
Finally, and absolutely needless to say, I will be FIRST in line for Ava Reid’s LADY MAKBETH (2024)
Merged review:
Thank you to dear Ava for sending me an early copy to blurb. Seriously, I love you.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was easily one of my most anticipated reads coming out in 2023. I’ve been a fan of Ava Reid since I read their debut as an advanced copy, and Reid never lets me down. Each book is so different, but all tackle difficult themes in atmospheric fantasy settings, lightened with a warm touch of romance.
A STUDY IN DROWNING follows Llyrian architecture student Effy Sayre as she wins a contest to design a new manor for the estate of the recently deceased author of the novel, “Angharad,” so well-known and beloved that he was named Llyr’s national author.
But designing the house proves more than just a simple challenge. The old manor is falling apart and sinking into the seaside day by day, lorded over by the volatile and domineering son of the author, and Effy meets a rival literature student who seems to have his own motivations for being there beyond his work organizing the personal documents of the author for a biography.
There’s a dark secret that haunts the decrepit manor, all tied back to the author himself and his famous novel, and though it is wrapped up in tales and warnings of the ominous Fairy King, Effy must work together with Preston to bring it to light.
I first read the entirety of this novel all in one night like a woman possessed, and it easily met and exceeded all my expectations and excitement. Then I read it again, and it did the same. It is a force to be reckoned with.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was the perfect atmospheric fall read. I adored its overall tone, to the point it became one of my favorite features of the book. Ava Reid is a master of atmosphere and settings for all of their novels. You pick them up, sink in, and can’t come up for air until you’re done. A STUDY IN DROWNING proved just as immersive and carefully constructed as their previous adult novels, and Reid’s crystalline clear vision is evident from not only the gorgeous prose, but also this novel’s striking setting and vivid imagery. From the university life and cozy libraries to eerie crumbling estates on seaside cliffs that hide long-lost diaries and waterlogged chests and dark figures lurking in shadows, and the persistent damp and creeping threat of destruction in a land where its people fear a great flood they call the Drowning.
My other favorite feature was the novel within the novel, “Angharad.” We get to read quotes as headers for new chapters, and see bits and pieces the many times Effy references it in ASID. The eponymous heroine of the novel was kidnapped by the Fair Folk and forced to wed the evil Fairy King, then tricked and evaded him through various tests and trials until she was able to escape. A love story and a fairy tale and a romantic epic and a tragedy, all in one. “Angharad” was so popular the author was given national acclaim and entombed with honor as a legendary Sleeper, dead figures meant to protect their country from ruin. To Effy, it carried a meaning all its own. “Angharad” was the beating heart of A STUDY IN DROWNING, with everything revolving around it: Effy’s past, the Myrddin estate, Preston’s theories, and even publishing’s dark history. Effy’s love of the novel easily translated off the page, making me wish I could read the whole “Angharad” with a worn, tear-stained copy too. Utilizing stories within stories has become an Ava Reid trademark, and the precision in which Reid uses them to shape, direct, and reflect the heroines of all their novels never fails to blow me away.
And importantly, the newest Ava Reid love interest: Preston Héloury, the literature student who has something to prove. I admire how Ava’s love interests are so starkly different from one another, because of how easy it is to fall into specific types across books. Evike and Gaspar from The Wolf and the Woodsman were enemies to lovers, Marlinchen and Sevas from Juniper & Thorn were forbidden loves, and Effy and Preston were academic rivals to lovers. Preston was a blushing, flustered, driven, argumentative rival with terrible vision. Reading as their exchanges of arguments and bickering grew to understanding and love caused me to make all the delighted titters and chortles. It was tender and gentle and felt so genuine, I was not immune and grew misty-eyed at their declarations and acts for one another. Preston is a Good Boy(TM) and Effy being in a Romance with him was so immensely enjoyable to read.
Reid never shies away from writing about hard topics and important messages, always done with great care and with purpose. A STUDY IN DROWNING tackles a great multitude of things, namely: men taking advantage of women, propaganda, and buried truths regarding the real-world history of the publishing industry. ASID had an off-page Teacher-Student relationship between Effy and one of her professors. It caused a scandal at the school, and made her the target of further bullying aside from her being the only female student. This had ended by the time the book starts, but is referenced in her thoughts on page, as she feels the effects of the incident, bullying, and slut-shaming. Both compelled and coerced by men in positions of power, Effy saw herself within Angharad. ASID also dissects the use of literature as nationalist propaganda, which is what war-torn Llyr uses the Sleepers and their works for, and quite literally upends it within its contents. And beyond that, it triumphantly unearths and exposes the publishing industry’s dark history in regards to women. All of these topics were handled with unwavering conviction, only adding to the long list of this standalone novel’s accomplishments.
A STUDY IN DROWNING was a brilliant novel that was part fantasy, part dark academia, part modern gothic, part horror fairytale, and altogether too gripping to put down. A gothic that manages to be both breath of fresh air and the familiar claustrophobia of the walls closing in around you (or the pressure of the water as you’re pulled under), A STUDY IN DROWNING is an undeniable testament to Ava Reid’s mastery of their trade.
I will continue to think about this novel long after I’ve read it, imagining that decaying, drowning manor and seeing the King of the Fair Folk in the shadows, and remember exactly how much of an impact novels can make upon our lives.
Ava, this is your signal back. May your works always be lighthouse beacons.
Finally, and absolutely needless to say, I will be FIRST in line for Ava Reid’s LADY MAKBETH (2024)...more
Thank you to Bloomsbury for sending me an arc! I owe you my life
The Priory of the Orange Tree was a book I put off reading due to mixed opinions and sThank you to Bloomsbury for sending me an arc! I owe you my life
The Priory of the Orange Tree was a book I put off reading due to mixed opinions and sheer size, but when I read it, I read it in two sittings and LOVED it. It’s one of the few popular books that deserve the hype it gets, in my opinion.
When this prequel was announced, I was very interested, and apprehensive, because Priory casts a long shadow and I’m a standalone lover.
A Day of Fallen Night met all my expectations and did not disappoint me in the least.
Yes, it’s a big book. Yes, it’s an expansive high fantasy and thus slowly-paced in the beginning. Again, I didn’t mind. It’s an epic adventure: every journey starts slow to begin and you have to appreciate the scenery. I admittedly read this much more slowly than the first, but hey, the holiday season has started and I work retail. I can only expect so much of my brain.
As opposed to Priory, where there was a perspective character I hated and wish death upon (Niclays) and another character I just didn’t really care about (Loth), I really enjoyed ALL the perspective characters in A Day of Fallen Night. Tunava, the middle-aged member of the Priory. Glorian, the young princess of Inys. Wulf, a housecarl with a mysterious past. Dumai, a godsinger raised on a mountain.
I also appreciated how much more explicit all of the LGBT representation was in this one, compared to Priory. In Priory, Ead and Sabran were the only concrete main LGBT relationship or established characters I can recall. The author has since said she thinks of Tane and Loth as being aspec, but I don’t remember it even being stated in text. In A Day of Fallen Night, we get TWO lesbian perspective characters (each with their own separate relationships), an aroace perspective character, and a bisexual perspective character. There are other side characters in same sex relationships, as well as mention of a trans/nonbinary character, I think. This was just awesome to read.
I had worried that the climax wouldn’t be as exciting since this is a prequel. I mean, we know the world survives, and the Nameless One rises in the time period Priory takes place in, but A Day of Fallen Night proved just as exciting and epic. I couldn’t put it down once I neared the climax. I found myself holding my breath, worried what could happen to our characters, and indeed the world. I stayed up until 5 or 6 am to finish reading.
It’s just astounding that Samantha Shannon can write these books, honestly, and that this didn’t pale in comparison to its predecessor. I look forward to her next installment in the Roots of Chaos series, whenever that might take place....more
Thank you to Orbit Books for sending me a print arc and Edelweiss for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
While I don’t usually go for romThank you to Orbit Books for sending me a print arc and Edelweiss for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
While I don’t usually go for romance, I was in a whimsical mood and thought that Half a Soul would be something akin to The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk (magical regency romance) so why not! And even better, I had some friends who said they really liked this book as well.
Half a Soul is a delightful and romantic fantasy book about an alternative regency England with magic and faeries! As a child, Theodora Ettings had half her soul taken by a faerie lord, which left her mostly emotionless and unable to feel things like shame, embarrassment, fear, sadness, etc, and also makes it harder for her to understand other’s feelings.
Now, as an adult, her dearest cousin needs to find a husband during the London Season, and Dora must do her best to not cause any scandals. But a fluke meeting brings her into the presence of England’s best magician, the Lord Sorcier, a handsome and important but highly unpleasant figure. Between Dora’s condition and a strange sleeping plague that’s been spreading around London, Dora is swept away into dangerous and whimsical faerie affairs.
I was honestly surprised how much I loved this book. While reading, HAS had me giggling and blushing and kicking my feet. And it was exactly what I was looking for: shorter and fast read, magical, and entertaining.
The romantic relationship that bloomed between Elias Wilder and Dora Ettings was so CUTE and so much fun to read. A woman who can’t feel pesky emotions meeting an obstinate, unlikeable (but deeply misunderstood) man??? Having to PRETEND to formally court each other in order to keep working together? Hilarious antics, endearing chaos, and witty banter ensues. Do I really need to say anything more?
While the romance was a big part of the book, I loved that there was still a plot in the form of the sleeping plague and trying to fix Dora’s condition. It progressed quickly, but not too quickly, and I was never bored.
Bonus points for how the book didn’t forget to focus on platonic relationships as well!
And while my soul wasn’t half-stolen by a faerie, as far as I know, I’m a rather logical person and sometimes don’t always understand why people feel the things they do, so I did relate to Dora more than I thought I would. Especially when Dora, despite only having half a soul, cared so deeply for the less fortunate.
It was a delight from beginning to end, and I can see why it got picked up by a traditional publisher after being an indie book. Let it be known: Anyone who loves banter in their romance NEEDS to read this.
I immediately downloaded the other two books from edelweiss so fingers crossed they live up to the first book!...more
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
As soon as I saw the premise of this shared onThank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
As soon as I saw the premise of this shared on Twitter, I knew deep in my bones that I desperately needed to read this, it sounded so finely attuned to my specific tastes, like it was written for me.
House of Hunger is a loose Elizabeth of Bathory (yes, the female serial killer who drank/bathed in blood and killed tons of servants) retelling, with a gothic horror fantasy setting, that I would pitch as sapphic Hannibal but with blood-drinking.
In the far north, noble Houses still cling to power and wealth, enjoying the delicacy of human blood, employing young women as bloodmaids to fulfill their hungers.
In the more industrialized south, Marion Shaw knows that backbreaking work and poverty are slowly killing her. When she’s had enough, she decided to respond to a listing in the paper. “WANTED - Bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have keen proclivity for life’s finer pleasures. Girls of weak wills need not apply.”
After a blood tasting, Marion is raised from the slums and placed in the infamous House of Hunger, ruled by Countess Lisavet Bathory. Her life transformed by the hedonistic court, full of debauchery and decadence, her every desire fulfilled so long as she bleeds for the Countess. But Lisavet is magnetic, an irresistible force both loved and feared equally, that draws eager Marion in to a game far deadlier than Marion signed up for… and shows exactly how wretched a woman can be.
To say this is one of my favorite reads of the year is an understatement. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t put it down. Seeing the pacing being called breathless? Agreed!
The atmosphere was sublime, and House of Hunger was easily an exemplary gothic horror, true to its genre. An old, sprawling estate with the architecture the genre gets its name from, hidden passageways, filled with taxidermy of hunts long past, isolated and surrounded by foggy marshes. Deeply hidden secrets, skeletons in the closet. Even more acutely, female gothic horror following specific tropes: fleeing from a villainous controlling male, discontent with traditional roles in society, exploring sexuality, entrapment, and murder.
Everything was so finely described, each of the five senses were given a feast. The smell of the tang of blood, the salt and the damp of fungus, coffee and clove cigarettes. Food treated as a rich luxury, oysters, roasted meat, fine pastries and cakes. The sound of music, of distant revelry, shattering glass, wind on the marsh. The sight of bright red blood springing up from the skin, of the black chokers on thin necks, exposed organs of Lisavet’s taxidermy projects. The sensations of the needle piercing a vein, Lisavet’s gold-capped canines sinking into flesh, a crushing, brutal kiss shared.
The undeniable magnetism that Lisavet had, pulling both Marion and the reader into deeper and deeper into a desire so dark and potent. Each interaction they shared had me on the edge of my seat, full to the brim with anticipation (insert the ever-iconic Angela Carter quote: “anticipation is the greater part of pleasure.”) with my breath trapped in my throat like a bloodmaid in Lisavet’s snare. How they differed, how they compared. For Lisavet to call Marion her equal, killers both.
I loved the sense of foreboding that the Bloodmaid quotes in the header of each new chapter evoked, little snippets into the psyche of other women who chose to take the role of Bloodmaid. And more broadly, how a society could develop to have blood-drinking be normal. House of Hunger even explored class conflict and what could make someone turn to a life as a Bloodmaid, and whether or not their choice in that permitted how they are treated by their owners.
As with most gothics, House of Hunger had a tight, claustrophobic plot, but we did see Marion’s city and the House of Hunger, but many more Houses and politics were mentioned, and lands further to the south, where Marion’s mother and Irene were from. But, as far as I could tell, blood does have a kind of power in this world. The night train ran on blood fuel, Lisavet could glean memories from blood, and blood-drinking did help her illness. As a fantasy reader, I would have liked to see more world-building and exploration into the magic, but I knew not to expect that from a gothic book.
There are simply not enough adjectives to describe House of Hunger. It was decadent, it was delectable, it was seductive, it was depraved, it was vicious, it was breathtaking, it was glorious. It was as horrifying as it was immensely indulgent.
House of Hunger was everything I wanted in one lush package and I quite literally cannot wait for it to be published so everyone else can read it. I desperately need to talk to someone about this.
Alexis Henderson, on reading my review: “The surreal and wonderful feeling when a reader picks up your book and just gets it in the way you dreamed someone would is absolutely unmatched. So grateful for this review.” ❤️❤️❤️...more
“What was a story except a berry you ate over and over again, until your lips and tongue were red and every word you spoke was poison?”
Thank you to th“What was a story except a berry you ate over and over again, until your lips and tongue were red and every word you spoke was poison?”
Thank you to the publishers and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Ava Reid’s debut, The Wolf and the Woodsman, was nothing short of a masterpiece of adult fantasy and set such a high standard for what debuts could accomplish. I was incredibly excited to be able to continue to support them and read more of their work… and a fantasy-horror retelling of Grimm’s darkest fairytale? Say no more!
Juniper & Thorn follows Marlinchen, the youngest of three daughters of the last wizard in Oblya, a city in the midst of throwing off the old ways and embracing modernization. As witches, Marlinchen and her sisters are little more than a source of income for their tyrannical father, who keeps them locked away from the outside world and under a tight leash.
But as young women, they chafe under his rules and sneak out of the house at night. On Marlinchen’s first night out, she is swept away by the ballet performance she sees, and the principal dancer who plays Prince Ivan. Every midnight tryst leaves hope for true love and freedom, but she also risks her father’s magic and rage if she’s ever found out.
Between money problems, their father’s turbulent moods and explosive fury, and a monster who stalks the streets of Oblya murdering innocents, everything will fall to Marlinchen as she figures out the true depths of what her father has done to them, exactly what the cost of freedom could be, and if she can afford to pay it.
Similar to TW+TW, Reid is able to craft such vivid, palpable atmosphere that is perfectly suited to the story they are trying to tell. Behind sunny and bright gardens lurk monsters and a sinister house that hides many things. Times of day alternate, turning sunny gardens to shadow-filled silence. Night migrations that lead to brightly lit ballet theaters. Like taking a bite of fruit with a rotten core, the atmosphere is in turns gorgeous and enticing, then shocking and disgusting, and back again. There’s a claustrophobic feel to the horror within their house, the weight of secrets and suffering.
The vividly different imagery mirrored their abusive father’s moods. Sometimes he would be kind and grateful, and then he could explode and threaten them with his magic. They lived in constant fear of him. He was cursed by a witch to never feel satisfied with anything. This novel was a realistic (but horrible) example of how it can feel to live under the abuse from a parent. The fear. The unknown. Walking on eggshells. Desperately trying ANYTHING to please them and to be loved, only to fail, to slip up, again and again. Nothing will ever be good enough, and the difficulty of truly coming to terms with that fact.
Fairytales are woven in to this narrative as Marlinchen recounts them to herself as she compares them to her life or uses them to make sense of things that have happened to her, or tells them to Sevas, the love interest. She was a child raised on magic and a fairytale codex and since this was a fairytale retelling, it seemed fitting. I always love the incorporation of fairytales and mythology within fantasy books.
And Sevas, my god, I would die for him. I truly don’t know how Ava is able to write such compelling but noticeably different love interests. I loved Gaspar in TW+TW, but they are not very similar and relationship dynamics were completely different as well. Sevas’ kindness and compassion and understanding to Marlinchen from the very beginning above all. There is something so visceral and unendingly awe-inspiring than a good, old fashioned “I see you. I see all of your flaws. I accept them. I love you.” scene. They make me want to rattle the bars of my sanity cage and scream into my pillow.
And I have to say I loved the complex relationship Marlinchen had with her sisters. So many times we read books about siblings being the best of friends, even if that isn’t always what reflects real life. Marlinchen’s relationship with her sisters was messy, was awful, set them apart, showed what they all had to do to themselves and to each other to survive living under their father, regardless if that meant throwing someone else to their father’s rage. I found it fascinating, and horrible, and understandable.
Since humanity began recording their stories, we’ve used fairytales to explore the darkness inside us and around us and explain that monsters can come from within as easily as they can stalk us through the woods. Juniper & Thorn is faithful to that purpose and shows such understanding and reverence to that function fairytales performed, and as custom, also managing to have a happy ending for our dear plain-faced fairytale heroine Marlinchen.
I look forward to anything else Ava Reid may write in the future, especially A Study in Drowning (fall 2023) and will certainly add this book to my collection come June!
I encourage you to read the author’s full statement regarding this book’s content warnings that you can find in the Goodreads reviews and as a reminder, this book is a fantasy horror. It’s meant to horrify, to repulse, to offend. It tackles and gives words to topics that may be hard to read for some, but everyone, from abuse survivors, to SA survivors, to ED survivors, deserve to have stories written for them and deserve to see themselves within fiction. And perhaps even more importantly: remember that survivors have different experiences. Do not disregard their voices because you, personally, might not find it palatable.
Content warnings: gore / body horror, child sexual abuse, physical and psychological family abuse, bulimia and graphic depictions of vomiting, animal death, cannibalism, self-harm and suicidal ideation, antisemitism and xenophobia....more
Thank you to the publishers and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I would say this hit at about 4.5 stars for me.
I have to say IThank you to the publishers and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I would say this hit at about 4.5 stars for me.
I have to say I’m not usually a horror reader but because this had a fantasy element and came recommended by an author I follow (Lyndall Clipstone) I decided to give it a shot! I had read the author’s novella Yellow Jessamine and it was decent but I didn’t love it. The Death of Jane Lawrence had been compared to Crimson Peak, Mexican Gothic, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Ninth House, Rebecca, Haunting of Hill House, and more, so I had high hopes for it.
The Death of Jane Lawrence follows Jane Shoringfield, a practical and logical woman who decides she must get married as her guardians are moving away and she will no longer be able to afford to live with them. She makes a list of suitors and decides the town’s doctor and trained surgeon, Augustine Lawrence, is the most fitting candidate. So she gives him a proposal: we marry, but it is a business agreement, I will work for you, I will live separate from you, and we’ll both have our freedoms. Augustine, eventually, accepts, on the one stipulation that Jane must never spend the night at his crumbling estate, Lindridge Hall.
But on the night of their wedding, as Jane is taken back to the town, Jane’s carriage is swept away in a flash flood/mudslide, and Jane is forced to make the trek back to Lindridge Hall and stay the night. But the Augustine she left at sunset is not the Augustine she finds during the storm: instead a haunted and terrified man who barely recognizes her.
The Death of Jane Lawrence turns into part haunted house story, part gothic love story, and part mystery fantasy, as Augustine is haunted by the patients he’s lost and a past he doesn’t like to speak of, Jane sees reflections of a woman with blood red eyes following her, Jane is led into a secret society of magicians, and the painful and deadly cost of magic becomes clear.
I was completely fascinated by the beginning of this book. I loved the marriage of convenience trope, that, naturally, turns into more. I related quite a bit to the main character, Jane, as a more logical person myself. I loved Jane and Augustine’s relationship as it grew, which was a match made in morbid heaven. (Wedding bands made out of human bone!) Him being a surgeon added a sort of body horror into the story, as well as the magic system.
I loved trying to decipher and figure out what direction this book could take. (Is the husband going to try to kill her? Is he a bad guy? What’s the deal with the ghosts? How much is this going to be like Crimson Peak?) and I am pleased to report that as the synopsis promises, The Death of Jane Lawrence did, in fact, completely overturn and upend all expectations. By the end of it, TDOJL was completely bonkers, in the best way possible.
I think the beginning of the book closely follows books of the genre set before it, the marriage, the spooky and decaying big house, ghost sightings, (very much Crimson Peak inspired) but it diverges and completely takes a different direction than what you’d come to expect.
I completely devoured this book, feeling as though I quite literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I was compelled, a woman possessed, you could say! I read the first part of the book, stopped myself, then read the rest of the book the following night.
By the end of it I was grappling with making sure I understood the climax/ending and feeling slightly crazed, adrenaline from this book left me reeling at 5 in the morning. I will say that this book does get fairly circular/confusing, so if people prefer more clear cut and straight forward climaxes & resolutions, I’d err on the side of caution before reading this, but I found I didn’t mind it!
My oh-so-eloquent first thoughts upon finishing were probably: what in the absolute fuck. Wow.
I will also note because I quite literally never read horror, I didn’t read it expecting to be scared. And I wasn’t. It was spooky and exciting for sure, though!
I will definitely be buying this come October and can’t wait to add it to my print book collection. I absolutely LOVE the cover as well....more
Thank you to Edelweiss and Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.
Lakesedge promised us monster-y romance, death gods, a gothic manor, a cursed lakThank you to Edelweiss and Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.
Lakesedge promised us monster-y romance, death gods, a gothic manor, a cursed lake, and magic, and it DELIVERED. I devoured this book in a single night.
Lakesedge follows Violeta Graceling, a girl orphaned with her younger brother being raised by a religious woman who took them in, but Violeta’s younger brother, Arien, starts exhibiting signs of dark magic: shadows erupting during the night as he dreams, and the woman punishes them for it.
On the tithe day, Arien’s powers erupt, and the lord of the area sees them and demands they come with him to his estate, Lakesedge. But the lord, Rowan Sylvanan, is a monster, rumored to have killed his entire family before inheriting the estate and lands.
But even if Rowan is a calculating and cruel kinslayer, Rowan needs Arien’s magic to help cleanse a magical corruption that started from the lake at his home, before it consumes Rowan, already half-filled with the corruption himself, Lakesedge, and the rest of the world, with its rot and decay.
Romance blooms between Rowan and Leta, but there is more to both of them than meets the eye, both inexplicably tied to Lord Under, the god of death, and it becomes clear it’s not just Arien who Rowan needs to help cleanse the corruption for good.
Now time for my actual thoughts on the book:
While I don’t think there was anything particularly noteworthy of the writing itself—I only tend to notice writing styles if it’s either terrible or absolutely stunning— it wasn’t bad but it just didn’t jump out at me, I LOVED the romance, I loved the magic systems, I loved the incorporation of the death god and his underworld, blood sacrifices, everything.
Even for me not enjoying young adult books very often anymore, this was amazing. I highly recommend if you’re looking for a good monster love interest fantasy romance.
As for LGBT rep: it was overall a F/M romance, and as far as I could tell the protagonist is straight, but there’s a wlw side character and I believe Rowan likes men as well as women. Found out later the author wrote Leta as demisexual.
Like I said, I devoured this book. It hooked me from the beginning and I felt like I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Now I’m hating that I read it so quickly because I need the next book NOW but it’s 19 months away. What am I supposed to do in the meantime? Bribe the author with a crisp $20 to let me read the unfinished draft of Forestfall? Work more hours at the bookstore to be able to give Lyndall a more sizable bribe?
Add to your TBR and preorder. You need to read this book, just like I NEED to be torn between Lord Under and Rowan Sylvanan, just like Leta....more
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publishers for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
This had come across my radar on Twitter and Edelweiss,Thank you to Edelweiss and the publishers for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
This had come across my radar on Twitter and Edelweiss, but I had brushed it off for reasons unknown. I liked the author's previous book for the asexuality rep but nothing else about it stuck with me. I'm liking Young Adult books less and less these days. So that might be it.
But when Illumicrate announced their April box, I figured I would download the arc and to see if I would want that box or not. (Hey, those boxes are expensive! It's called doing research)
I certainly regret putting it off for so long, because I really, surprisingly liked it, like, a lot!
The book follows a 19 year old pansexual woman named Rovan, who is a rogue blood mage in a society, sort of modeled after Ancient Greece, where blood mages are conscripted and bound to ghost servants. After using her powers to save her lover, she's discovered and sent to the castle where the royal family and other blood mages live, and bound to a ghost. She uncovers truths regarding her parentage and just how the dark undercurrent of blood magic and death magic function in her society, and how a malevolent force is draining the world around the capital to the point of it being uninhabitable.
This book has so much LGBTQIA and polyamory rep, as well as multiple characters of color, all of it felt real and genuine. I loved the main character and her relationships (the romance and her friendships), the darker themes and body horror. The magic system was so interesting and unique. *chef's kiss* There was plenty of action and the book pulled me in right away.
The author has posted a review containing content warnings and whatnot but I do want to reiterate that this book is not exactly Young Adult. It's definitely for 16/17+. There are two sex scenes, and while not exactly fully detailed smut, they aren't fade to black, either. Plenty of swearing, including the F word. Depictions of gore. Character deaths. Alcoholism. None of this bothered me and was what made me enjoy it even more (since I haven't been enjoying YA all that much lately) but I figured I would include it in my review so others can be aware.
All in all, it was a very quick, engaging, and entertaining read and I definitely recommend it!...more
“What is more lovely, after all, than a monster undone with want?”
Thank you to the author ST Gibson and her publishing agency for the digital arc in e“What is more lovely, after all, than a monster undone with want?”
Thank you to the author ST Gibson and her publishing agency for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review, first Nyx publishing, later Orbit Books.
I heard bisexual polyamorous vampires and I came running. I mean, it had to be good. I had no doubts. I watched the 2004 Van Helsing movie (if you know, you know) a suspicious amount of times in my formative years. I unashamedly love vampires and love that they seem to be coming back around in the current publishing trends.
For comps, aside from the novel from which it was based, I would say that A Dowry of Blood is Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and The Lady of the House of Love meets Deathless by Catherynne M Valente.
A Dowry of Blood is a Dracula’s Brides retelling, from the perspective of Dracula’s first bride, Constanta, who is reflecting on her undeath and relationship with Dracula in an open letter addressing him. The book spans centuries, from Constanta’s turn to the addition of Magdalena, and the addition of Alexei, the highs and lows of their lives together, to secrets and obsessions and violence and power, the tumultuous nature of their relationships with one another as time marches steadily on, and Dracula becomes increasingly more volatile.
Beyond the vampires and their glorious aesthetic, and glamorous adventures through Europe, A Dowry of Blood is, at its core, a harrowing survival story written for those who are abused by the ones they love. The terrible power Dracula evoked and the fear of Constanta and the other brides felt was all-consuming. But as horrifying as it was, it was also full of hope.
This is a book that grabs you by the throat, sinks its teeth in, and doesn’t let you go. It’s entangling, enchanting, entrancing, and terrifying and you can’t help but feel it all through and with Constanta.
While I don’t think I have ever read a book in this narrative style, it wasn’t too hard to get into, and made it all the more unique. I started this late in the evening and couldn’t put it down. I finished it the same night, after highlighting many, many quotes, because the language and prose was just as beautiful as the story they told.
It was gothic and bloody and passionate and dazzling (literally, all the adjectives) and this easily became an instantaneous favorite.
I have been championing this novella since I first read it in 2020 and I will continue to do so until the end of time. It deserved its little cult following on Tiktok that got it popular enough to catch the eye of Orbit. I am so happy I can FINALLY handsell this new edition to customers in my store....more
“We dying girls, we sorry girls, gallows-bound...”
Thank you so, so much to Tor.com Pub for sending me an influencer box for A Spindle Splintered, whic“We dying girls, we sorry girls, gallows-bound...”
Thank you so, so much to Tor.com Pub for sending me an influencer box for A Spindle Splintered, which I will soon post pictures of on my bookstagram: greenteareader. Alix said she put me on the list herself and my heart is still singing. And thank you to Netgalley for the digital copy as well.
A Spindle Splintered follows 21 year old Zinnia Gray, a girl with an incurable, terminal illness she obtained from some kind of chemical accident. No one with the disease lives to 22 years old. And since she’s a dying girl, somewhere along the way amidst hospital beds and tests, she became obsessed with Sleeping Beauty. She watched the movie, she read all the alternate versions she could, and ended up graduating high school early and getting a degree in folklore, so Zinnia knows Sleeping Beauty is the least feminist folktale of them all.
On Zinnia’s 21st birthday, her best friend, a stem lesbian named Charm, throws her a Sleeping Beauty themed party and when Charm dares her to prick her finger, Zinnia does, and falls into a fairytale world with another Sleeping Beauty.
If Zinnia can’t save herself from her fate, she wants to try to save Primrose from hers, and the clock is ticking for both of them.
A Spindle Splintered is an amazing feminist take on the least feminist [western] folktale of them all. It’s self-realized and takes a good, critical look at different versions of Sleeping Beauty while still being an enjoyable, humorous novella with a mostly happy ending. The sisterhood and friendship that ties these characters together are truly inspiring and brings about a fierce desire to cherish and defend them. Alix Harrow truly never disappoints.
I loved Zinnia’s drive, I loved Primrose, I loved Charm, I loved the queer representation, the pop culture/meme references, and, as always with Alix, who I trust with my life, the writing.
I highly recommend this for people looking for a short and quick read (I think the novella is under 130 pages, and some pages are the gorgeous fairytale silhouettes) and love empowering retellings and sapphic rep.
Thank you to the publishers and Edelweiss for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I also won an ARC from Ava Reid’s Instagram and got it personalThank you to the publishers and Edelweiss for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I also won an ARC from Ava Reid’s Instagram and got it personalized! Thank you so much Ava!
First off, I would agree that this title is comparable to Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy and Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver, yet remains all its own. Regardless, if you liked those either of those series/books, I guarantee you’ll like this one!
The Wolf and the Woodsman follows Evike, a magic-less girl in a village of pagans, in a land where the dominant, monotheistic religion has been wiping them out. In exchange for their relative freedom in their isolated woods, the king requires a tribute/sacrifice of one of their women every x amount of years. Evike, an outsider due to her mixed heritage, is betrayed by her village and offered as a sacrifice when the king’s Woodsmen come again. But their path back to the capital and Evike’s death is not so quick as it may seem.
After a series of misfortunes in the forest, the Woodsmen who took Evike are whittled down to only the captain: who so happens to be the disgraced/nearly disowned Crown Prince, Gaspar. Evike and Gaspar are forced to rely on each other to survive, and realize their interests may align more than they think, so they agree to ally themselves against their common enemy: Gaspar’s younger half-brother who is trying to take over the throne with the support of the dominant religion and end paganism as well as the Yehuli, of whom Evike’s father belongs (who are very clearly from 50% on that they are the Jewish people of this world) , for good.
Their journey, full of mistrust and long fueled hatred of each other’s religions, takes them between the Arctic north and the packed capital and back again as they try anything they can to prevent Nandor from seizing the throne, and inevitably grow closer and closer despite their differences.
The book is great for any fantasy lover: it has enemies to lovers romance, it has mythology, it has delicate political and religious conflicts, it has gods and monsters and mythical creatures, religion-based magic, long quests to fulfill their goals. But it has even more: it’s full of sweeping myths and legends they tell each other, studies and comparisons of religions, religious exploration, organic and lovely Jewish representation.
I enjoyed this novel very much and can’t recall anything that I didn’t like about it. No complaints from me (which is saying something) !! I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for it to be published and get my hands on a physical copy.
Read for: -protagonist who isn’t a teenager (she’s 25) -Jewish representation -protagonist who isn’t skinny -enemies to reluctant allies to lovers -having to cuddle to preserve body heat (wink wink) -body horror magic -religion and mythology...more
“Witches-blood runs thick in the sewers, the saying goes...”
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.
I am convinced Alix E Harrow is a wi“Witches-blood runs thick in the sewers, the saying goes...”
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.
I am convinced Alix E Harrow is a witch, because her words are magic. The Ten Thousand Doors of January introduced us to Doors to other worlds, and The Once and Future Witches introduced us to the struggles of witch women, and the magic she brings to her stories always has the “will” behind it to make it real.
The Once and Future Witches follows the three Eastwood sisters: James Juniper, the youngest and most willful; Agnes Amaranth, the responsible middle child who took over the motherly roles; and Beatrice Belladonna, the eldest and most reserved. Chapters vary from each of their perspectives. They were raised in Crow Country by their abusive father and their witch grandmother, who taught them the words and the ways of witchcraft. The sisters were torn apart prior to the beginning of the book and are drawn back together (circumstance? Fate?) in the city of New Salem, where the women’s suffrage movement is taking off in 1893.
In New Salem, each sister has individual struggles of her own; Juniper running from a crime she committed, Agnes discovering she’s pregnant, and Bella’s forbidden attraction to women and the introduction of Miss Cleopatra Quinn.
After being inexplicably pulled back together, they start working towards a common and noble goal, fueled by their rage at the injustices done to them: women’s rights and the resurrection of witchcraft.
To bring back strong witchcraft, they’re chasing a legend: the Lost Ways of Avalon. Three witches, Maiden, Mother, and Crone, had fled to escape burning and collected all witchcraft in their tower, before supposedly being caught and burned and the tower lost forever.
They rally women around the city and form the Sisters of Avalon as a women’s group committed to witching and women’s rights, and make mischief and raise hell along the way, but their fight is constantly dogged by societal views, the hatred of witchcraft and any women with power, as well as a specific shadowy politician named Gideon Hill.
And while the novel is a well-known tale of subjugated women and their struggle for autonomy and freedom, the slightly alternate/adjacent reality only adds and heightens the story being told.
Alix E Harrow’s writing is beautiful, descriptive without excess, and timeless. She stunned me with her debut and this is no less as stunning and magical. I will continue to look forward to any stories she spins in the future.
And for those interested in rep: Juniper has a disability in the form of requiring a walking stick, Bella is a lesbian who starts dating a black woman, and there is a minor transgender side character....more
New, fully updated review that captures all my feelings towards this amazing book. My first read was of the ARC I got from Netgalley, and I’ve since rNew, fully updated review that captures all my feelings towards this amazing book. My first read was of the ARC I got from Netgalley, and I’ve since re-read the print version I bought upon release.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. Period. It was a truly transformative, meaningful book that left an impact on me in a way most books fail to do.
TTDOJ follows January Scaller, a young mixed girl who is the ward of a wealthy man her father works for in the early 1900s. As a child on a trip with Locke, she discovers a doorway to another world, and it changes her forever. Much later, as a teenager, she finds a journal belonging to a another person who encountered doors, and who knew other people who discovered them. When she opens the journal, her story, and the journal’s begin.
The book deftly weaves the journal’s perspective with January’s, as she discovers more about the world (worlds) around her and herself.
But when she learns her father has gone missing, quite presumably dead, on one of his work trips for Mr Locke, her life as she knows it begins to fall apart, and it’s up to her, guided by the journal and the stories it tells, to finally find a place for herself (and a very Bad dog) in whatever world she wishes, while evading a group bent on destroying the Doors and closing off the worlds forever
While the story is slow to start, you can savor the expertly crafted sentences Alix Harrow has penned. Her language is eloquent and gorgeous, lush and flowery without being excessively so, and certainly quote-worthy!
Equal parts fantastical and heartachingly lonely, this coming of age novel packs quite an emotional punch and has some very heavy parts. From January’s lonely, isolated life as a prized rarity of Mr Locke’s collection, motherless and nearly fatherless, and being committed to an asylum against her will with her only escape the journal she reads, to the very end, when everything is tied together in a beautifully hopeful and radiant conclusion.
It explores the highs and very, very lows of January’s life, more so a journey of finding herself and her place in the worlds more than high fantasy exploration, guided by the journal, a woman her father hired to look after her with a lot more to her than meets the eye, a trustworthy childhood friend, and her dog Bad.
Every part of this novel is masterfully crafted, meticulously planned and woven together, all leading to one of the best conclusions I’ve ever read. Radiantly triumphant and achingly hopeful. All ends were tied together, all questions answered, all hopes fulfilled, and only leaving just enough open for the teary-eyed readers to imagine where January will go next, with all the worlds open to her.
With each turn of the page, TTDOJ solidifies itself as an ode to loving books, and how much one can change your life forever, and I can say January’s certainly changed mine.
Trigger warnings: self harm, neglect, animal abuse, animal death implication (he lives!), forced hospitalization / involuntary commitment (to an asylum)...more
Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC. Probably one of my most looking forward to reads of 2020 because of how much I liked The WinnMany thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC. Probably one of my most looking forward to reads of 2020 because of how much I liked The Winner’s Trilogy.
The premise started off as an eerily similar-feeling “walled off castes” dystopian, but it was set in a fantasy world. Truthfully I had no idea where the book was headed, and the synopsis doesn’t really give you much other than a general hint of the direction.
It follows Nirrim, a girl of the lowest caste, who can remember literally everything. Being born, every conversation, a glance at a book. Everyone in the lower caste is not allowed to leave their walled off section of the city. No mirrors. Strictly enforced rules about apparel and appearance. Terrible tithes of blood and hair and body parts. No history books. Gods that no one remembers. Everyone accepts it because “it is as it’s always been.”
But as the synopsis says, she meets Sid the traveler who makes her question everything she has believed. Sid claims there’s magic in the city (that the lower caste have no knowledge of because it’s kept from them) and wants Nirrim’s help to find out what it is.
So the book is about Nirrim’s discovery of the sections she had been barred from and of herself, of seeking out the magic of the High caste, of finding out exactly what the city is, why it is the way it is, and why no one remembers.
The levels of fantasy go deeper and deeper as the novel progresses in a frankly surprising (but very fitting) turn of events. I’m super excited to see how the story continues in the next novel.
And as stated in the synopsis, it is a LGBT+ romance. I literally could not get enough of Sid and Nirrim and all of their antics. Their banter. The tension. Sid in general. I love them.
I would also like to mention this novel does a really good job on talking about and showing the effects of toxic relationships, with family and love. Some of it was hard to read and I don’t think it’s usually ever depicted in such a realistic and complicated way.
I would highly recommend this book for fans of Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer....more
Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for providing me an ARC. There have been comparisons to Six of Crows because this is a fantasy heist book witThank you to the publishers and netgalley for providing me an ARC. There have been comparisons to Six of Crows because this is a fantasy heist book with a diverse group of characters, but it’s so much better! The characters are, again, very diverse: a Jewish girl, an Indian girl, a Haitian-French man, an Algerian-French man, and a French-Filipino man. And they all have their different perspectives and point of views that get showcased. They have goals, desires, reasons to participate, and they feel so real. The book is set in Paris right before/during the World Fair but it’s also a fantasy with magic that’s called Forging, and various factions within. The Forging is such an interesting concept, the creations mesmerizing and you wish you could be surrounded by them. Somehow this magic ties in perfectly with the setting. And paired with the setting, it makes for a vivid, captivating aesthetic. And as for the plot, it keeps you on your toes! No dragging leading up to a single heist and the book be over, but various, smaller heists are pulled leading up until the final one, and even then, it’s still not over! I believe it’s going to have another book? A series? But I will definitely read the next one....more
Wooooooow I'm really shooting myself in the foot for not reading these books sooner. I knew I loved Laini's mind when I read DOSAB and how intricate aWooooooow I'm really shooting myself in the foot for not reading these books sooner. I knew I loved Laini's mind when I read DOSAB and how intricate and wonderful and amazing and unique her version of fantasy was and this lived up to DOSAB and more. I want to kiss her beautiful mind. This world opened up even further in this second novel and I didn't want it to end. The story, the conflict, the resolution, the ending, the hope for the end!!! God!!!!!! I can't even articulate an actual review and it's been over 24 hours since I finished reading it....more
Oh. My. God. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC.
The last book in a trilogy is always so difficult to please me, in general. IOh. My. God. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC.
The last book in a trilogy is always so difficult to please me, in general. I tend to be very critical of this. There are so many ends to tie up, so many questions to answer, so many conflicts to resolve, etc etc.
This trilogy became close to my heart as soon as I read TBATN and I was very afraid to be left unsatisfied, but I was completely and thoroughly and teary-eyed and laughing at the pages and leaping in surprise, and I haven't been this engaged in a book in ages.
I don't think I've ever read a book that tied a series to a close as well as this did.
It was an absolute delight to read, with twists and turns and shocks and at one point I thought I had come to the climax, near the end, and yet, there was still 1/3 of a book left! I was amazed.
This book brought everything together, in more ways than one. It answered the questions of Vasya's heritage, or her future as a "witch" in the Christian world, her relationship with Morozko and the chyerti as a whole, her place with her family and her country, the conflict between the new religions and the chyerti, and Vasya's own magic. And just enough tantalizing possibilities left out that I would sell my firstborn to Arden for short stories and novellas of Vasya's adventures post-TWOTW.
Also, Vasya and Morozko were a slowburn pair that tore at my heartstrings, and again: the events of their relationship in this book made all the pain and suffering worth it....more
**spoiler alert** Morozko's gone? Sure, Jan. I want the next book asap. Vasya's and Morozko's antics in this book killed me! The pining! The heater angs**spoiler alert** Morozko's gone? Sure, Jan. I want the next book asap. Vasya's and Morozko's antics in this book killed me! The pining! The heater angst-filled arguments! The point of view swaps! The "no I won't save you" proceeds to repetitively save and care for Vasya, okkkkkkkkk. The emotionally constipated frost demon needs to get his act together :/ I suppose we shall have to wait until the next book for a happy ending? Hopefully? I hope in the end it's happy....more
I really, really liked this book. I have come to really enjoy reading books based on Russian mythology and liked reading about specific creatures in aI really, really liked this book. I have come to really enjoy reading books based on Russian mythology and liked reading about specific creatures in a new author's perspective. I loved the concept of this book, witch girls and winter kings and a mad demon, and probably would have given it 5 stars but it did start off pretty slow. I'm interested to see what happens between Morozko and Vasya and I'm so glad there are more books! I love standalones but I was thinking that I wanted to see more of the characters and the world. Definitely will recommend it to people....more
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