Nico

Audio: A unique detective, alt-history, portal fantasy and *completely* satisfying sequel in the **Thursday Next** series with some unexpected twists this time around. Fforde is a top-tier creator of worlds that have shimmers of familiarity yet are completely absurd and fever dream, while writing interesting characters and interspersing humorous historical [and in this case literary] references and jokes that go over my head 80% of the time.

2.5 generously rounding to 3. As someone else says, “no plot just vibes,” but even the vibes were a miss for me. I felt like I was kept at arms-length. It's an interesting premise, but I never was wowed by Penny, Dallergut or the store, and - maybe because of the state of my cold, dark heart - I never felt my heartstrings pulled, even though I craved it. My favorite of the stories were about the customers addressing their trauma and the musician struggling with inspiration, but even those felt too brief and just at surface level. I just felt nothing with this one.

Penny gets a job at the Dallergut Dream Department store, a place where you can purchase dreams ranging from meeting a celebrity to seeing a family member who has passed. Told in a series of vignettes, you follow Penny as she bumbles and learns the ropes while interacting with customers.

I think fans of When the Coffee Gets Cold might enjoy this or vice versa, folks who enjoy the cozy subgenre, or maybe light novels (I'm pretty ignorant about these, but this somewhat reminded me of light novel The Haunted Bookstore by Shinobumaru).

I'm baffled. 1) How can the same author of Spinning Silver, which I found well written, rich and complex, have written this series, which I find the opposite? 2) I truly don't understand how this has a 4.2-star average rating on GoodReads. I tried to make it through after reading that if you liked A Deadly Education you'd like this one. I did like the first book, despite it being very info-dumpy it surprisingly didn't bother me. With this sequel it was all the worst aspects of the first amplified and none of the good. Well maybe the ending is good, like how it was with the first, but it's not worth it to keep going passed 77%.

A collection of seven short stories inspired by fairytales. Expect the unexpected, there's everything from talking cats that man a pot farm to murderous things in a post-apocalyptic world that only are kept at bay by the presence of a corpse.

I thought for sure after the second story this would be winner for me, but then by the third I was less enthused and it really just went down from there. Link is an interesting storyteller, but part of my issue is that she either spends a lot of time that felt unnecessary in its setup or they're too intellectual for me (or it wasn't a me problem at all, I'll never know) and complete misses.

Favorites were The White Cat's Divorce and Prince Hat Underground. Absolute least favorites were The Girl Who Did not Know Fear, Game of Smash and Recovery and The Lady and the Fox.

A very satisfying conclusion to the Alamaxa Duology. While the first book focused on our two women MCs fighting for their right to use their elemental magic and the politicking in this patriarchal society, book two focused on war. It’s one of the few series that’s made me really mad, but in a good way. This was almost a 5-star book, it just had some plot convenience things and rushing that knocked it down a smidge.

I *highly* recommend this underread series, but especially for people who like diving deep into MC’s motivations, thought processes, etc, politics and revolutions, you’re looking for non-Western inspired fantasy, you like books that explore power imbalances that resemble those of the real world, or you want a short series that is fast-paced.

Books 2 and 3 of the Morrigan Crow series were a light in between most of the listens I’ve been begrudgingly tackling recently and I devoured them because I just couldn’t with the others.

Wundersmith focuses on Morrigan in her first year with her cohort - sisters and brothers for life - yet it seems most everyone, cohort and teachers alike, is against her and believes she is dangerous. She is bolstered and validated by Jupiter, the staff at the Hotel Deucalion and her BFF Hawthorne. Blackmail to her cohort to keep her secret isn’t helping, people around her are going missing, and she gets multiple surprise visits from the evil Wundersmith. How will Morrigan make it through her first year?

As someone on GRs said, “no plot just vibes,” but even the vibes were a miss for me. I felt like I was kept at arms-length. It’s an interesting premise, but I never was wowed by Penny, Dallergut or the store, and - maybe because of the state of my cold, dark heart - I never felt my heartstrings pulled, even though I craved it. My favorite of the stories were about the customers addressing their trauma and the musician struggling with inspiration, but even those felt too brief and just at surface level. I just felt nothing with this one.

Penny gets a job at the Dallergut Dream Department store, a place where you can purchase dreams ranging from meeting a celebrity to seeing a family member who has passed. Told in a series of vignettes, you follow Penny as she bumbles and learns the ropes while interacting with customers.

I think fans of When the Coffee Gets Cold might enjoy this or vice versa, folks who enjoy the cozy subgenre, or *maybe* light novels (I’m pretty ignorant about these, but this somewhat reminded me of light novel The Haunted Bookstore by Shinobumaru - maybe it was just the cutsy protagonist in the vignette style, though I prefer that one).

If you're a nonfiction reader this is a must read. The memoir-in-essay format satisfied my love for hearing people's personal stories, but also challenged me to learn, relearn, unlearn and question (though I was doing very little relearning, it was mostly learning, self-examining, and questioning larger systems). I like how Rebekah Taussig decided to make each chapter a topic in disability advocacy to dissect and [usually] I thought there was a clear thesis - chapter one was the weakest in my opinion but I want to one day reread to see what I missed. Overall, fantastic book and excellent as an audiobook.

Olivia Atwater just might one day be added to my favorite authors list. Though I didn't feel this book is as well rounded as Half a Soul, it's pretty fantastic. Like the first book, this one too covers some positive themes great for teen readers (are these books YA, I keep getting confused). I didn't feel as interested in our main protagonist or the story as early on as I did with the first book, but well by the middle I was rooting for the main characters and by the end happily surprised by some of the twists it took. Im excited to continue following Atwater and see what they do next.

This was a guilty pleasure and comfort read for me: the whimsical writing, the wonder, lightheartedness, and type of magic system. I was torn between 4 and 5 stars, but for for what it does in a short amount of pages it's a 5-stars from me for now. I did highly enjoy the character work, the themes, the plot and worldbuilding.

Many folks say that the third and fourth books in the Long Price Quartet series are better than the first and second books, but I thought this sequel was superb. Everything was better this round for me, including the character development and character relationships, the pacing, and the political intrigue was 100%. I also really liked the depth of the villains and thought the women were way better written this round. Now I can't wait to finish the last two books.

Audiobook review: I stumbled upon this self-published book and I have no regrets, since I'm a big ol' kid and I love shows like Archer, Futurama (in fact the main character reminded me of Fry) or really anything on Adult Swim. Monsters, demons, talking cockroaches, a motley crew - I'm all in. If you don't want to read/listen to something with incessant anti-fatness as a device to represent sloth (my opinion of course) or don't like adult cartoons, especially the crude ones, my guess is you will not enjoy this one. This was excellent as an audiobook and I wonder if that elevated the book for me, regardless I'll be continuing on and hoping this gets turned into an adult cartoon.

This little novella felt very whimsical from the start in its storytelling and atmosphere - Cindy Kay's narration in the audiobook no doubt amplified these feelings. I was immediately drawn in by the interactions with the mysterious Grandmother, but the tale turned into something unexpected. The book introduces you to three characters and intersperses other stories in between their interactions - the tones somewhat felt like it was two different books. While being swept away by some beautiful storytelling in between the interactions of the three characters, I really just wanted more of the latter. The end was surprisingly satisfying to me however and I plan to read the next one, even if it follows the same formula of the first, which I suspect it will. Highly recommend as an audiobook.

“Vampires aren't glamorous,” and thats the only reason why I didn't put this down. What started off as interesting dialogue between the Average Joe vampires presented in a first-person voice of the main character, eventually became a grating delivery method of an okay plot. I was mildly interested in the mystery, but I mostly stayed because of the unique spin on vampire lore.

I picked up because it was described as dark fantasy with horror elements. Really, I just recommend checking out Philip Chase's non-spoiler review on YouTube. He made me appreciate what the author did so much more - he also talks about content warnings. I think the way the author managed bi-rep, (shout-out for having it from male perspective too, which I find even rarer) and the way it handles anxiety/depression/trauma are phenomenal. Overall, especially after reading the final 100 pages, I didn't love this book like the majority seems to. But, there are so many unique and special aspects to it (like what I mention above, but also the political and sociological philosophy) I do recommend picking it up.

I went in knowing very little about this book. I quickly became interested in the what would happen to our protagonist, Dora, and the fantastical problem swept me in from the start. I was immediately struck by Dora's internal dialogue and struggle to connect with herself and others. When it became apparent this was a Pride and Prejudice retelling I had mixed feelings - would this go how I would expect or would I be surprised? The answer is...I loved every minute of it. I think this sends some great messages to young people reading it about emotional struggle, the roles of women, meeting expectations, and the importance of addressing societal problems while balancing your own self-care. The audiobook was also fantastic, it elevates the book without a doubt.

So, holy frikken cow. There is so much I could say about this book. My biggest comments for those thinking about picking this up are about the pacing of the fantasy. For the first fourth of the book it reads just like a contemporary intergenerational family story with no fantasy, but the atmosphere is mildly creepy. I didn't hate this because Victor LaValle could tell me about mundane tasks like making toast or taking the train and about the journey to and of parenthood all day long. Just wow, what a writer. So if you're thinking of DNFing for that reason but aren't hating the writing I'd say don't give up. THEN, at the quarter mark something freakin' happens and holy holy cow. Then, at the half way mark it really gets into the fantasy elements. If you're someone who pays attention to trigger warnings, particularly regarding children, specifically >!violent loss of a child!< you will want to evaluate if you want to read this book or not. I think this book has a lot of powerful themes, but this is already too long to comment more, just check it out. Overall, I thought this was fantastic and there is more LaValle in my future for sure. Excellent as an audiobook.