Wayward Bookshelf

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher I enjoyed this book! It had a slower build-up to a pretty wild ending. I didn't read it particularly fast at first, but found myself really enjoying the last third or so. Things I liked: - Minor horror elements that didn't squick me out. As someone who's not a fan of horror in particular, but appreciates fantasy with some darker bits as long as I can stomach it, finding an author who's able to strike that balance is always exciting. - Romance and true friendship between the older characters. The MC in this book is a YA character, but she's not part of the romantic thread, nor is she at all interested in romance because she's focused on surviving with a monster for a mother. The story's one true romance is between a couple that reads as being somewhere in their 50's-60's, and I thought it was very sweet. And the friendships that ring as the most lasting and true are also between three middle-aged ladies. I...

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow This was such a wonderful read! It's been a minute since I sunk into a gothic novel, and this was just a lot of fun to spend time with. It was very gothic, a little gritty, and a little romantic. Starling House is a somewhat sentient old manor that sits on the edge of a bad luck town. It's only occupant, Arthur, is a bit of a recluse. Rumors about the house have swirled around for years, and the truth might still be in them somewhere. Opal has always felt drawn to the house. And that's where our story begins. The setting of Eden, Kentucky is so well done, you can almost taste the pollution from the local power plant, and feel the miasma of bad luck that has settled over the town. Opal is fierce, tough, has never felt quite at home, and is still learning how to trust the people who have cared for her. Arthur has been carrying too much for too long, he's resolute, and very broken. I loved them both as soon as they appeared on the page. T...

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik The Last Graduate is a fun read, packed from start to finish with unexpected plot developments, great character arcs, and epic magic performed by student mages. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it. For a book that has a lot of darker fantasy themes, it really is a delightful read. I really enjoy El as a character because she is so very sardonic, and she has the potential - and even the prophesied destiny - to be a super powerful evil sorceress, but fights so hard to just be a normal kid. Or at least as normal as you can be when you're attending a the magic school that wants to kill everyone. I like seeing the cracks in her tough outer shell as she makes friendships and alliances, and the strength in her resolve as those relationships begrudgingly foster a spirit of altruism in her. The world building of the Scholomance, and the magic system therein, is rich and complex and Novik does a wonderful job making it feel tangible. The characters...

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow Zinnia Gray, ex-Sleeping Beauty and current fairy tale hero from A Spindle Splintered , is continuing to bash her way through fairy tale realities rescuing Sleeping Beauties trapped in narratives much like her own (at the expense of her own health and relationships) until she finds herself pulled for the first time into a different fairy tale, faced with a very different type of person in need of help - a villain. I like how this series plays with fairy tales, and with the long tradition of retellings - from traditional, to gender swapped and grim-dark etc, etc. For someone who has always had fun reading these various takes on fairy tales, fiction that is self-aware of it's nature as a retelling is good fun. I also liked this book because the misunderstood baddie is a trope that tends to really work for me. And the Evil Queen is great - she knows who she is, and she doesn't compromise her sense of self even as she searches for a different nar...

Along the Saltwise Sea by A. Deborah Baker The Up-and-Under is Seanan McGuire's series written as Deborah Baker from her SFF masterpiece, Middlegame. I love that these books function on their own as a Middle Grade or YA level series that feels a bit like the movie Return to Oz , the The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making series, or the animated series, Over the Garden Wall . And at the same time, they add to the richness that is Middlegame. In this installment, Avery & Zib along with their two new companions from the Up-and-Under, Niamh & Crow Girl, continue along the Improbable Road and find themselves at the Saltwise Sea, and get into a bit of a pirate ship adventure. The story doesn't have so much of a clearly defined beginning-middle-end, because the children's main story is definitely continuing on, but there is still a smaller arc that sees it's time finished. So I felt it was a satisfying read. For me, the best bits of these...

  Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker This is a brilliant novel and premise, because while it is connected to Seanan McGuire's Middlegame and will provide some amazing context and easter eggs for fans of that book, it is also an excellent read as a standalone novel. AND it is easily approachable for middle grade and young adult readers who may be ready for some of McGuire's gorgeous weaving of faerytale and folklore, and maybe not quite as interested in as much of the blood or real-world stressors that her adult characters tend to encounter in her other books. Our characters are Avery and Zib who are as different as two children could be, and running late to school one day in their perfectly ordinary lives when they come to a huge wall blocking the road they usually take to school. They climb it to try to continue on their way to school, and so begins an adventure on the other side of the Woodward Wall. There are a few things that make this book particularly excellent...

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire Small Spoiler Alert - no major plot points, but I do talk about some of what's in the book. If you're planning to read it and want all surprises, maybe read this review later. While this book was really good, it didn't capture me quite as completely as a couple of the previous Wayward Children books did. It felt a little . . . fragmented? And not just because that's what Jack was experiencing, but because when the whole troupe goes on the quest to help one of their own, there are suddenly a lot of different interests and perspectives that we're supposed to care about (and we do! we really do!), but when I care in too many directions that pulls me away from the main thread of the book. Ensemble books have always been problematic for me for this reason, so within this series the even numbered books tend to be my favorite because they are the portal fantasies . . . Anyways, I always feel a little scatterbrained trying to revie...

Into the Nightfell Wood by Kristin Bailey This book is a sequel, and admittedly, I did not read the first. That said, I didn't have any trouble picking up the thread of the story and following along as Wynn and Elric try to navigate life in the fairy realm. The sibling relationship between Wynn & Elric is lovely. They take care of each other, each in their own way, and they understand the other's abilities and reactions really well (perhaps this means it's not an entirely accurate representation of all sibling relationships, but it's much more enjoyable to read than squabbling would be). When Wynn is lured out of the safety of the fairy realm and into the Nightfell Wood, Elric knows he must go after her. The darkling creatures in the Nightfell Wood are frightening, the elves are feisty and the 'witch' is an unexpected surprise. In their adventures there, they befriend some they otherwise wouldn't have - Wynn especially has that knack for making fr...

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire In this 4th book of the Wayward Children series, we focus on Lundy, who we know from the other books as the girl who will never grow up. We see her enter a door to the high-stakes, logical world of the Goblin Market and begin to navigate it. We see her build relationships, we see her care about her biological family and her found family, torn between finding meaning in her two very different worlds. We see the consequences of 'fair trade.' While my favorite Wayward Children installment thus far is Down Among the Sticks and Bones , there were a couple things that made this book very compelling. One, [little spoiler warning] we see an example of a child who finds the same door her parent did. This informs part of their relationship. It also informs a little of Lundy's existence in the Goblin Market, because the market has known another Lundy (and lost him when he chose to remain in the 'real' world). The second compelli...

Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire And we're back into another chaotic adventure with Toby. In the aftermath of THE BRIGHTEST FELL, I expected this one to continue unpacking some of the emotional punch that we ended that one with, but it sort of jumped right into another emotional punch. Maybe that's just how Toby's life works? As a result though, it wasn't my favorite October Daye book. I'm hooked on just about anything Seanan writes in this world, but I'd like a little more continued character development rather than all-action-all-the-time in the next installment, please. Anyways, Tybalt is traumatized, withdrawn and not very present at the beginnings of the story, so when Toby is woken up by Cliff & Miranda banging on her door to accuse her of kidnapping Gillian, she doesn't have as much backup as usual when she charges into following Gillian's trail. What she finds is . . . interesting. Unexpected. The BIG revelations & my react...

The Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst In Reluctant Queen, we met Naelin, Aratay's other queen, and it became apparent very quickly that her children are the most important beings in her world. So when they are kidnapped by foreign spirits near the border with Semo, her sorrow & fury at losing her children is palpable to the Aratarian spirits she is bonded to, and they become agitated in response to her spilling emotions. Naelin strives to learn control as she works to figure out what has happened to her children, while Daleina struggles to hold the country together when one of its queens is unstable. In this installement of the Queens of Renthia, we get to travel into Semo for a time, and witness the ruggedly volatile mountain country that is plagued by too many spirits. We spend time with Merecot, and gain more insight into her character's motivation. We also have brief glimpses of the other countries in Renthia, and their respective Queens. And so our knowledge of ...

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik After reading Uprooted, I knew I really loved Naomi Novik's fairy tale style, and once Spinning Silver was announced, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. And the book totally lived up to my expectations. Billed as a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, but with elements of Cinderella and a handful of other folk & fairy tales, this is a truly unique and captivating novel. I did listen to the audio book version, and found the inflection that Lisa Flanagan gave to each character to be very clear when our point of view shifted between them without pulling me away from the story to have to catch up. Our story follows the trajectory of two parallel kingdoms as they intersect: the Staryk kingdom of a cold elven race - the stuff of winter & fairy tales, and Lithvas - the kingdom of a tsar with nobles, farmers & peasants. Our heroines are three women: Miryem, Irina & Wanda who we follow as each fights to protect their place in the...

Uprooted by Naomi Novik This dark fairy tale was a gripping read. Nieshka is a compelling and unique character, with many talents who is, by virtue of her nature & personality, simply unable to fit into the boxes that others would put her in. She grows up near the Wood, which is full of elemental forces & spirits that have become corrupted and sinister, but the Wood is also a source of essential food & water. When the time comes for the Dragon, the local wizard, to choose a new assistant from the town's young women, Nieshka is selected to be his assistant for the next decade. And he might have gotten more than he bargained for.  In a world where magic is tidy, orderly and performed to strict guidelines, Nieshka literally shakes the foundations of the kingdom by breaking form and performing spells that are supposed to be long forgotten - and it's a good thing too, because together Nieshka & the Dragon end up facing an unforeseen enemy that is crafy & st...