narfna – Page 102 – Cannonball Read 17

“Of all the myriad races of thinking creatures in the world, the two that most delight in telling stories are the flesh-and-blood humans and the long-lived, fiery jinn.”

The Hidden Palace (The Golem & The Jinni, #2) by Helene Wecker

September 16, 2021 by narfna Leave a Comment

I’m having a hard time reviewing this one, mostly because I had a hard time deciding what I thought about it. But I’m on the verge of getting hopelessly behind in reviews again, so it’s time to buckle down and figure it out. I was thinking about the book this morning and I think I’ve finally formed some solid opinions, so here we go. This is a book about change in all its forms: death (and grief), destruction, creation, evolution, the way a person changes […]

A book I loved years ago is still great on re-read.

The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1) by Helene Wecker

September 1, 2021 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was just as good the second time. Not going to do a whole huge review because I’m tired, and I’d rather be reading the sequel instead of writing things. I still think this is an absolutely lovely portrayal of the immigrant experience, both in the way it portrays actual historical immigrant communities (particularly Little Syria and the Jewish communities in NYC) and in the way that Wecker uses the outsized fantastical experiences of the golem and the jinni (Chava and Ahmad, as they become […]

I had to start this book over again four times before I could get into it, but it was worth it in the end.

The Witness for the Dead (The Goblin Emperor, #2) by Katherine Addison

September 1, 2021 by narfna Leave a Comment

You’ve really got to give this one a minute. Similarly to the way I felt about Addison’s first novel (under this penname at least) The Goblin Emperor, the names and the naming system and the worldbuilding are A LOT. Unlike with The Goblin Emperor, there is no glossary, and we are not joining a world as the fish out of water along with the main character like we were with Maia in the previous book. Our main character here, Thara Celehar, a Witness for the […]

SEND IN THE KRAKEN!! aka The Queerest Fantasy Series I’ve Ever Read, Part IV

The House of Always (A Chorus of Dragons, #4) by Jenn Lyons

August 10, 2021 by narfna 4 Comments

This series remains one of the most confounding I’ve ever read. It makes me feel unstable thinking about it and reading it. I don’t quite know how to explain it to you. I start these books, every time (except maybe the first book, since I had nothing yet to forget) soooo frustrated that I get angry, and I almost quit because everything is so needlessly elaborate in terms of structure, plot, and characters, it’s basically impossible to feel prepared before reading them (without binging them […]

This book gave me a yearning. #CBRBINGO – Flora

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1) by Becky Chambers

August 5, 2021 by narfna 3 Comments

“. . . the robots left the factories and departed for the wilderness.” “Before long, Dex was no longer nursing something as simple as an odd fancy for a faraway insect. The itch had spread into every aspect of their life. When they looked up at the skyscrapers, they no longer marveled at their height but despaired at their density—endless stacks of humanity, packed in so close that the vines that covered their engineered casein frames could lock tendrils with one another. The intense feeling […]

There was no other way I could go with the Self Care BINGO square than by reviewing a fanfic. #CBRBINGO – Self Care

Dan Westchester, Hello Kitty Enthusiast by violue

August 4, 2021 by narfna 17 Comments

Link to the story on AO3: Dan Westchester, Hello Kitty Enthusiast Firstly, if you are not familiar with fanfic (which I hope is not many of you, because it is a true pleasure to indulge in) many fics have individual titles but are part of a series that also has a title. I’ve used the series title for this one, Dan Westchester, Hello Kitty Enthusiast, because it makes me laugh, and because I honestly think it’s a better title than part one of the fic, […]

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