The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1) by Stephen King
I rated this four stars the first time I read it. I think that was because I hadn’t read the rest of the series yet, and now that I have in my head what this series can really do when it’s going, this one just feels a little anemic in comparison. Also, it’s such a weird book that I didn’t know what to make of it at the time, but I can see what he’s doing now that I’ve read the rest of it. In […]
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
The Familiar is an atmospheric historical fantasy set in the late 1500s Spain, when the Inquisition was up and running at full power. Our heroine is Luzia Cotado, a scullion in the house of a poor noble family who uses small ancestral magics taught to her by her secretly Jewish family to get through the day: unburning burnt bread, multiplying the potatoes when there wasn’t enough coin at market, heating water, fixing a seam. The plot kicks off when Luzia’s mistress, Doña Valentina, catches her at […]
The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft
The longer I think on it, the more I think I liked The Hexologists. Sometimes while I reading, I wasn’t feeling super into it, and as soon as I finished I still wasn’t sure. I think part of the challenge for me was that there’s a lot of necessary world-building going on at the same time characters and scenarios are being set up, and some things don’t get even attention. I’m still not sure about the narration; the narrative voice for random reasons suddenly seems […]
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
I don’t think I’ve read a science fantasy book before, so this was a cool first for me. It also had more horror elements than I typically read, and I found the darkness didn’t bother me (mostly). I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I’ve realized that I tend to have trouble explaining my feelings on 3-star reads and the mix of things that worked and didn’t work for me, but let’s give it a go. Gideon Nav is an orphan living in the […]
Return of the King by JRR Tolkien
At last, we have reached the end of the trilogy. I won’t keep you on tenterhooks. My lukewarmest take is still that these books need brutal editing. These books are boring much more often than they are interesting. Still, you’re not here for warm takes. You’re here for hot takes, and I am here to deliver. I first owe Peter Jackson an apology, since Eowyn’s feminist cry was just in the last book rather than in Two Towers. But not a big apology. Tolkien seems […]
Evocation by S. T. Gibson
I read S. T. Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood — a retelling of Dracula from the point of view of one of his brides — earlier this year and absolutely adored it. The writing was beautiful, the characters were interesting, and I loved the general vibe (it was giving the vampire flashback scenes from Buffy and Angel, without the terrible accents). Her latest novel, Evocation, the first in a planned series (The Summoner’s Circle), was recently released, so I picked it up. Evocation follows David […]
