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The Montague Twins Vol. 2: The Devil’s Music by Nathan Page & Drew Shannon. Alfred A. Knopf / RH Graphic, 2021. 9780525646808. http://www.powells.com/book/-9780525646808?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Charlie, Pete, and his brother Al are in a band, The Bony Fingers. After their supernatural adventure in the first book, Rowan is continuing to teach them a bit of magic. But a shadowy group of faculty at the university has some concerns about that plus a new member – an uncle the boys have never heard about. There’s also a handsome and mysterious rock star, Gideon Drake, who recently showed up in town and started hanging out. It’s a minor spoiler, but the reason he’s there has something to do with Millie, a girl who also goes to Central High and who, nearly catatonic, almost falls into the harbor in front of the lighthouse. As romances start to develop and a group of mothers protests against rock and roll, there’s some question about what’s up with Gideon (and whether or not it’s demonic).
This is an odd and pleasant follow-up to the first book in that it doesn’t have a rigid mystery plot. I’d have thought this series would have gone toward more a predictable, straightforward Hardy Boys-type plots but Page and Shannon are letting the characters dictate the direction of the series. The result is a great read with beautiful art set in New England in the late 60s (I think) featuring concerned adults, realistic high school kids, and a developing storyline that seems to be setting things up for later books. Here’s hoping there are a lot of those.
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Horse Trouble by Kristin Varner. First Second, 2021. 9781250225870. 288pp. including an author’s note, photos of Varner as a kid (including a few riding her horse), plus a few pages sharing sketches and her process for creating comics. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781250225870?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Twelve-year-old Kate hates being chubby and loves riding horses. She goes to school with her popular best friend Becky. Tuesdays and Saturdays she takes riding lessons at Millcreek Farm, where she also helps out to help pay for them. There are mean, unpleasant girls at both school and the barn, and Kate’s brother and his friends are jerks too. The fact that Kate keeps falling off horses as she’s training for competitions doesn’t help her self-esteem, either. The book is about her growing up a little, figuring out that she’s maybe somewhat cool (as is her brother), and that she’s more than a little awesome at riding, too.
My friend Marin has loved riding since she was a kid, and this book demystifies that for me. (My dad loved horses, too, but I’ve preferred motorcycles since my saddle came off an out-of-control horse running at full gallop on a beach.) This book has definitions of specialized vocabulary about horses and riding in “footnotes” that I found really helpful. I now know that the person who saddled the horse I fell off of probably wasn’t paying attention. That horse maybe have been bloating, which allowed the saddle to slip.
Worth noting: The drawings are charming, as is the use of red ink as an occasional accent color. I’ve read that it’s especially hard to draw horses well, and the horses in this book look spectacular, as do all of Kate’s falls and competitions.
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Ralph Azham Book 1: Black Are The Stars by Lewis Trondheim. Translation by Kim Thompson and Joe Johnson. Colorign by Brigitte Findakly. Super Genius (Papercutz), 2022. 9781545808795. 150 pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781545808795?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Lewis Trondheim has a new book in English! It’s the first part of what was, in French, an amusing 12 volume epic. This one contains three of the original books. It features an a fantasy world full of anthropomorphic characters, strange creatures, and magical artifacts reminiscent of Trondheim and Sfar’s Dungeon series. Characters like Ralph who are blue have special powers – in his case it’s ridiculous (at least at first) – he can tell how many kids a person has. (He develops a more useful and deadly power that involves the ghosts of those one has killed as well.) Over the course of the books Ralph goes from hapless outcast to the kind of direct, plain talking hero I find it easy to root for (though he’s still an idiot sometimes). The whole series is, at least in part, about family, the one you’re born with and the one you choose. Great stuff. The fact that Trondheim’s wife B. Findakly colored his comics makes the art the much more fun.
If this sounds familiar it’s because Fantagraphics published the first French book as a single volume years ago, but then didn’t publish the rest. (It looks like Papercutz is going to though!) It’s worth noting that Papercutz published another book by Trondheim in 2021, a wordless graphic novel titled The Fly. It’s something kids and adults would love. And as I write this it’s still possible to find episodes of Fly Tales, the cartoon based on it, on YouTube.
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The Outlaws Scarlett And Browne by Jonathan Stroud. Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. 9780593430361. 421pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9780593430361?partnerid=34778&p_bt
I have great memories of reading Stroud’s Bartimaeus series and his standalone novel Heroes of the Valley with my daughter when she was a kid, and this entertaining page turner brought those memories right back. Sent in a steampunkish post-apocalyptic England filled with deadly creatures, walled cities, and adults who are jerks (and worse), the book centers on Scarlet, a lovable scoundrel who has penchants for violence and bank robbery. Fleeing the scene of a crime she meets the slight and awkward Albert Browne, alone in the wilderness. The two quickly find they’re being hunted by an armed group; Scarlett assumes they’re after her and the money she stole, but it turns out she’s wrong. Albert has a few surprises for her, including one that will help her career as a criminal (though that doesn’t seem to need much help).
The book isn’t entirely a nonstop chase at breakneck speed, though there’s always danger nearby. But I never doubted that Scarlett was a match for all challenges, including the stylish and nasty big bad she and Albert face at the end.
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Treasure in the Lake by Jason Pamment. Harper Alley, 2021. 9780063065185. 208pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9780063065185?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Iris and Sam love exploring the woods around the lake near Bugden, the town where they live. Sam loves being there more than Iris does, though – she wants to leave Bugden and see the world, maybe as an archeologist, while he seems content to stay there for life. In fact Iris just got into a school in the city, and she’s desperate to go there instead of Bugden High. So when her mom seems cold on the idea, Iris gets upset and heads to the river to be alone for a bit. The river suddenly dries up and Iris makes a big big discovery – long-buried train tracks and a city that is normally hidden in the river. Iris drags Sam into the lost town to look around. They have a falling out when Sam wants to leave (he wants to see Bugden’s new statue revealed). Iris stays there and, after the bell in the old clocktower rings, she has an adventure that is supernatural or in a different time or both. It’s all rather sweet, and it involves Ben, the old guy who passes Sam and Iris on the street early in the story.
Pamment is an Australian animator, director, and designer in addition to being an author-illustrator. His art looks as if it glows! If you don’t believe me, there are amazing cover blurbs endorsing this graphic novel from Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), Ben Hatke (Zita the Spacegirl) and Shaun Tan (The Arrival). You can see an animated trailer for the book (which shows how great the cover is) at Pamment’s website, http://www.jasonpamment.com/
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Himawari House by Harmony Becker. First Second, 2021. 9781250235565. 384pp. with a note on the use of accents in the book + early sketches in the back. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781250235565?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Nao moves from the U.S back to Japan, where she was born, to study Japanese for a year between high school and college. She lives in shared housing with four others: Hyejung, from South Korea, who is studying for university entrance exams in Japan; Tina from Singapore who is doing the same; and two young Japanese dudes, the friendly Shinichi and very quiet Masaki. As Nao reconnects with her childhood self and tries to figure out if she’s gaijin or Japanese, the five form the type of fast, deep friendships that can only happen when everyone is in a new place, trying to help each other. (The other characters inner live are explored a bit in the book, too.) The story includes crushes, holiday parties, karaoke, part-time jobs, a charming grandma who lives down the street, and the best use of accented English I’ve ever seen in a book.
Worth noting: When the characters speak a language other than English, the language is in the word balloons along with English. It makes for a great chance to practice another language if you know a little of it, and it’s so much better than putting translated language in English between << brackets like this >>, which is what I saw in a lot of comics when I was a kid.
Becker previously drew George Takei’s graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy.
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The City Of Belgium by Brecht Evens. Drawn & Quarterly, 2021. 9781770463424. 336pp. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781770463424?partnerid=34778&p_bt
The City of Belgium starts with a guy getting ready to move, calling friends to figure out what he’s going to do on his last night in town. It ends with a conversation on a beach that he’s not involved in. In between is a lot of partying, some drama, and a ton of conversations. The voices are amazing, and like in Evens’ other graphic novels they’re lettered in a different color for each character. The flow is great, especially the effortless way the book shifts focus from one character to another and back again (and no one draws characters in conversation better than Evens). But the star of the book, as with Evens’ others (The Making Of, Panther, The Wrong Place) is his art; it feels both loose and exact. Characters’ morph from panel to panel, expressing deep feelings and drunken boisterousness and all-out sadness. And so often in this book I’d turn a page and just stop and say, “Wow!” There’s so much going on on some pages while on others the drawings are minimalistic – but they’re always fantastic. I borrowed this copy from the library but I’m going to immediately buy one for myself – it’s perfect for dipping into here and there, and it will easily double as a compelling coffee table art book for folks to flip through.
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Daredevil: Know Fear by Chip Zdarsky (writer) and Marco Checchetto (artist). Colors by Sunny Gho. Marvel, 2019. 9781302914981. Contains Daredevil #1 - 5. Publisher’s Rating: T+. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781302914981?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Daredevil is recovering from an injury but heads out into Hell’s Kitchen to fight crime anyway. When he takes on three men breaking into a store, one of them dies of head trauma not long after. Should he continue to be a hero? (He asks himself this question a lot, and also discusses it at church quite a bit.)
Detective Cole North has just transferred to New York from Chicago. He sees costumed “heroes” like Daredevil as sadistic criminals, and refuses to turn a blind eye to their activities as other cops do. He’s determined to bring Daredevil to justice.
Complicating the story: Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin is the current mayor of New York City. And Punisher thinks Daredevil may be coming over to his way of thinking (it’s better to kill criminals than to arrest them). And there’s also a visit at the end of the book from a less-than-friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
I’ve already read through the 4th volume of Zdarsky’s Daredevil run – the entertaining epic that continues across the books contains Elektra, an affair with a bookstore owner, a gang war, and, of course, Bullseye. The 7th volume is due out in spring of 2022. Don’t look at the later volumes’ covers if you want to avoid spoilers.
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Otter Lagoon (Sueño Bay Adventures Book 2) by Mike Deas and Nancy Deas. Orca, 2021. 9781459819641. http://www.powells.com/book/-9781459819641?partnerid=34778&p_bt
Jenna is a rule follower, but she’s breaking more than a few as she tries to raise money to help Charlie, an injured dog. When she discovers a glowing object in Otter Lagoon after a dog-walking mishap, she pretty quickly understands it’s the egg of a moon creature, specifically the very large Luner Serpentis. (Her little brother Sleeves has discovered one of its teeth, which also glows.) Jenna decides to try to make money by selling the eggs to exotic animal dealers, which angers the sea serpent, putting a vehicle ferry and the people on it in danger.
Spouses Nancy and Mike Deas live on an island in British Columbia, so it’s no wonder rainy Sueño Bay feels so close to home. (I live in Seattle.) After reading this one I immediately went back and read the first book in the series, Shadow Island, which involves the same four friends, a raccoon-like supernatural creature, and a harsh gym teacher. I love the ambiguity of the characters’ ages and the fact that everyone knows the town is home to supernatural creatures.
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Holy Frustration, Batman! I don’t recall a book that made me so frustrated at the main character and the world. The Dragon Republic picks up with Rin dealing with the mental and physical consequences of her actions against the Federation. She is haunted by Atlan’s memory and uses opium as a way to numb her feelings. Her actions in the first 200 pages of the book made me grind my teeth because she reverts to a sullen teenager, however, this quickly ends as the adults around her slap her out of her sulk. Rin’s naivety fades as the Republic prepares to fight the Empress Daji - Rin’s sworn enemy and the villain. But all is not what it seems. And as Rin begins to dive under the surface her desire for revenge often clouds her judgement but she is pulled back down to earth by some of my favorite characters from book one.
Book two was as action-packed as the end of book one but with more dense battle scenes and political intrigue. The magical battle scenes in particular were incredible. They reminded me a tiny bit of Noami Novil. Kuang’s plot twists are evenly paced and keep the reader entertained throughout the 560 pages (this is not a short story). She gradually introduces new characters and sheds light on the Trifecta. It also becomes clear to the reader, that there is no black and white in war. Someone always loses. One of the things that startled me a bit was how ugly the Hesperians were painted. I expected them to be haughty and extremely racist, as the Westerners looking to colonize. Their beliefs in the one god echoed the christian missionaries who arrived in China in the early 1840s. But some of the things Petra said reminded a tad too much of the Nazis. Their belief of the superior race - blonde and blue eyed as one example. I believe the racism mentioned is an accurate portrayal but why blonde and blue eyed specifically? My guess was this was to show contrast vs. the Nikara and the Mugen. In fact, Daji’s back story paints an interesting perspective on the war.
The other aspect of the Dragon Republic that was a little hard for me to believe was the supposed romance between Atlan and Rin. Following the release of the first book, Kyuang confirmed that romance was not a strong plot device. Rin’s feelings of guilt and her confession in the second book contradict this a bit. Unless the love is more platonic? It was really hard to tell. And there is still evidence of a love triangle but it is resolved by the ending.
And what an ending. That is one award you have to hand to Kyang. She knows how to write an explosive ending. Even knowing what Rin and Kitay are planning you don’t really see the plot twist coming.
3.5-4 stars for The Dragon Republic. I loved the Poppy War more but this does not disappoint.
ARC provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
XX
Susan
Warning - Unpopular opinion time!
Before reading Love, Rosie, I watched the 2014 movie staring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin. It was cute if not a little predictable but I didn’t expect the poor reviews from critics. Many referenced that the movie diverted drastically from the book. And they were right. Hollywood simplified and glamorized most of Love, Rosie. Brian was eliminated for Greg. Sally cheated on Alex (these are all inaccurate so not spoilers). Alex had no children with other women.
And yet, I finished the book deeply unsatisfied. Maybe it’s my age (28) but it felt like Alex and Rosie wasted lifetimes telling each other how they felt. They went from one bad relationship to the next. It was painful how many trials Ahern put them through. There were also so many moments early on where feelings could have been revealed. Such as the first flight to Boston airport when Alex and Rosie first separate. Both are unattached. Lives are changing. Great moment to reveal feelings and the kiss that happened when Rosie was 16, don’t you think!?
Also while I appreciate the unique way the story is told (letters, texts, chats) not everything had to be a letter. Exhibit b, when Alex saw how miserable Greg was making Rosie, he wrote a letter saying she deserved better. She deserved him. Said letter was stolen by the evil Greg. One - she deserved to hear that in person. Two - some may argue that it wasn’t the right time. She was giving her marriage a chance and it would be selfish. But I don’t understand how? She kissed him years earlier. He had a better than average chance and frankly, we know how it ended with Greg.
I know the ending is supposed to be unusual and sweet but to me Bethany is the winner in this story. This fact alone makes my blood boil. The rich princess won Alex at 17 when he was too scared to tell Rosie how he felt. She won him at 29. She won the picture-perfect house with the secure family life and no monetary issues. Rosie struggled from 18 on and the only reason she succeeds is her mother and sister take pity on her and reward her with the house that becomes her inn! This is after her finishing her education and interning at a run-down hotel. Ahern must really hate teen moms because Rosie does not catch a break until 50.
I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but if Rosie was on birth control her life would have been quite different. Which is why abstinence, taught in primarily catholic schools, drives me mad. I’m not advocating that she should have aborted but she gave up her life and doesn’t catch a break. Sure, Katie was an amazing child but the struggle, hours at dead end jobs, dingy apts, dead-beat boyfriends and more seem like a punishment. As a result, I viewed her story as a cautionary tale not a happy romance. She gave up her dreams because of one night with a boy she didn’t even like! Her BnB is a cute consolation prize late in life.
Anyway, this book left me deeply unsatisfied. I spent hours trying to dissect it and my conclusion is that while Hollywood was inaccurate at least it saved us from the real horrors of teen pregnancy.
XX Susan
It took me a while to get through the nearly 800 pages of The Empire of Gold. I had forgotten so much of what happened in Kingdom of Copper. I was also just generally not a fan of the love triangle and was really hoping to see Nahri excel on her own. I still think Nahri from City of Brass was my favorites—scrappy, sarcastic, stands-on-her own Nahri.
The first 30-40% (I’m reading on a Kindle) focus on character and emotional development much of which is driven Nahli and Ali’s growing romance. I struggled with this the most because after rereading the ending of Kingdom of Copper I was hoping for more tension and more action. In contrast Dara’s dark, grim chapters were a bit more of what I was anticipating. It felt a bit disorienting to switch but Chakraborty has always been fantastic at building that slow tension and culminating in an explosion of change. The prose and world building was as beautiful as the previous books in the series and will not disappoint.
I think the conclusion really made it for me. So many trilogies fall into trap of having too many loose ends and try to solve them all at once. I loved Dara’s ending. I teared up at their parting words:
“ I would do it again, Dara. I would take your hand a thousand times over.”
This bittersweet moment choked me up for two reasons. Dara is finally able to chose a path for himself and gain redemption after millennia. Their love is still there but has changed. This was so much more realistic than a “they lived happily ever after”. There was just no world where Dara and Nahri could be together. And while I still don’t love Ali and Nahri, I wanted happiness and family for our little thief too.
4 stars for the epic conclusion to one of my favorite trilogies of all time.
I received a digital ARC courtesy of Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
xx
Susan
Entertaining satire of high-fantasy and fairy tale novels. Our protagonist, Julianna, is an unloveable, soulless (literally) and exiled princess with a sarcastic demeanor—the opposite of what a “good” princess should be. She has as retinue consisting of a ghosts and guardians and they go on a quest to find a prince that can break her curse (but she doesn’t want it broken). All standard parts of the fairy tale canon. Throw in an evil wizard with dashing good looks, sprinkle in some women’s rights movements, pirates, and you have the Chronicles of Fritillary.
The omniscient narrator has a quick, dry humor reminiscent of Good Omens but alas not as funny. His humor and the characters were often very similar so it was hard to discern who was speaking.
I would recommend this for fans of Shrek and Disenchantment who are looking for a nonstandard adventure.
3 stars for How to Break an Evil Curse
xx
Susan
The Orphan of Cemetery Hill is a delightful, gothic mystery set in 19th century Boston. While maybe not as dark or as riveting as The Witch of Willow Hall, I still found myself enjoying The Orphan and read it in one sitting.
Inspired perhaps by the period’s penny dreadfuls and the actual crimes of Burke and Hare, The Orphan follows the story of medium, Tabby Cooke, as she navigates life as the adopted daughter of a cemetery keeper. Tabby is also young orphan secretly sought after for her uncanny ability to speak with the dead. Her distant family seeks her to profit, others seek her for more nefarious reasons.
Interspersed with the story of Tabby’s gift is a murder mystery surrounding a young lady and series of grave robberies in addition to a love story. The love story was sweet but maybe a little unbelievable given the short, limited encounters Tabby had with this person. I was expecting more flashbacks to her child hood to help build the foundation but it was still nice.
4 stars for The Orphan is Cemetery Hill. Perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper, Jacaby, Rivers of London and more.
xx
Susan
The Chalice and the Crown is a wonderful, YA fantasy novel for fans of Danielle Jensen’s Malediction Trilogy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. While the method of transportation to the City of Roses is similar to Carroll’s Alice—that is where the similarities end.
Sasha is a young, Russian prima ballerina. Like many ballerinas, she is obsessed with perfecting her craft and because of this her health suffers. Like her mother before her, she is plagued by nightmares of a distant land where she is a thrall or slave to a rich family. Dreams and reality merge when Sasha’s soul is ripped from her and transported to the thrall’s body. She must use her wits and her friends to find a way to escape and return home. Along the way she finds love and friendship while trying to change the history of slavery in the kingdom.
Flamouri’s debut novel (she had previously had a few short story anthologies) is well written and the pacing keeps you engaged throughout the book. She has interwoven bits of Russian culture without going over the top. For example, the pet name “kotik” or little kitten that grandma Nadia calls Sasha. Or the traditional Russian lullaby, “Bayu Bayushki”, which is prevalent throughout Sasha’s story as a coping mechanism for the young heroine. The only thing that would really tip you off is Sasha doesn’t have a patronymic but instead has a patronymic surname (Nikolayeva means of Nikolai) which happens with first generation Russian-Americans.
Overall 4 stars for The Chalice and the Crown. I was very pleased with how The Chalice and the Crown concluded. This is a standalone YA which was very refreshing and Flamouri did a fantastic job tying up loose ends. The romance was sweet but not the focal point. There are a number of dark themes but the author does a great job cautioning any readers who may see these as a potential trigger.
I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Xx
Susan
The King’s 100 was exactly what I expected and I love it that much for that. Perfect for young readers and fans of Meg Cabot. The King’s 100 follows Princess Piper, a Capalon, who sneaks in to the enemy country of Mondaria to find any traces of her mother who mysteriously perished years before. There she auditions to become part of the King’s 100, an acting and entertainment group based in the King’s court.
It is really cute to see Piper explore the enemy kingdom and her own feelings. As a stem-focused country, Capalon puts emphasis on science and tries to remove emotion from every decision. So when Piper begins to feels the strings of love or jealousy, she shies away from these emotions and tries to focus on her goal of finding out more about the long lost queen.
This was a super quick and easy read. I can easily see this becoming a script for a Disney movie or an ABC Family show—it’s light, it’s fun, and it has a strong female lead. The ending did leave some things unresolved so I’m sure there will be a sequel that follows.
I received a digital ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Immortal Works Press!
xx
Susan
Happy Book Birthday to Race the Sands!
This was a very enjoyable, standalone fantasy read very similar to Maggie Stiefvater’s Scorpio Races. But where the plot was driven solely by romance between the riders, the water horses and the legendary race in Scorpio Races, Race the Sands also focuses on relationships. Relationships between mother and daughter, trainer and trainee, and competitors.
I loved our MCs, Tamra and Raia. Tamra’s character is usually played by a surely and cantankerous male so it was refreshing to see a confident and capable female. As a rider herself, Tamra understands the risks involved with the kehok races and trains her pupils not to bond with their charges. The kehok themselves are monsters that would do Doctor Moreau proud—from lion and lizard combinations, rhino and jaguar, to horse and jackal monstrosities. These monsters are the rebirth of the “darkest, most evil souls” of Becar which in and of itself is an interesting view on reincarnation.
Intertwined with the races is a conspiracy against the royal family. Tamra and Raia are thrown into the center of this and must race (pun intended) to find a solution before the new emperor’s coronation. Raia must rely on help from secondary character like the cunning Lady Evara, Prince Dar, and of course, Tamra to save the day.
This story has a little bit of everything - action, mystery, hints of a budding romance. I thoroughly enjoyed Race the Sands and the beautiful world of Becar and would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Scorpio Races, An Ember in the Ashes, Hidalgo, and more.
I received a digital ARC courtesy of Edelweiss and the publisher, Harper Voyager, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
xx
Susan
I really struggled with giving this book three or four stars because while it’s clear Ms. Forest tried very hard, there are a few things that bothered me. So after a night’s sleep, I rounded up to four and here is why:
Let’s start with the good:
- Fans of Lukas Grey will love him even more in this book. As Elloren’s forced fastmate he continues to be the quiet savior and voice of reason. I won’t say more about their relationship because frankly it’s a huge plot point.
- Elloren/Ren begins to grow a back bone about her powers! While our heroine is never shy about taking action, in the first two books she spent a lot of time lamenting about her powerlessness. Powerless no more!
- Some of our favorite or MY favorite secondary characters make an appearance! If you like Tiernay and Wynter, they have some chapters throughout. Mums the word about the other characters—you’ll need to read it.
- There is plenty of action from all sides. Literally. Everyone is out to get Ren— even the trees want her dead. The trees try to bottleneck her power (not huge spoiler and hard to pinpoint why this would matter).
- We learn more about the different races and magic sources in Gardeneria and the mythical East. It’s nice to finally leave the walls of Verpax University.
And now the not-so-great:
- The first 20% of the book is a rushed introduction to new characters. Characters that are also in some cases a new race of Fae. It’s a lot to take in when the second book ended on a cliffhanger focused on Yvan and Ren. Furthermore, I didn’t really understand why Ren was sent back into the arms of her enemy. Just didn’t seem wise?
- We jump around the content and the plot a lot, going from POV to POV. I assume it’s meant to illustrate all the different parties involved in the conflict and that all of this will be resolved in the last book.
- The jump from 3rd person to 1st person narrative for Ren was really clunky. I’m not a fan.
- The way some characters are killed just seems too perfect. Like the author was trying to figure out a way to get rid of loose ends and dropped an ACME anvil on them.
- The romance angle. I got pretty tired with having to hear about the flames burning Ren up.
Overall, you will not be bored or disappointed with The Shadow Wand. The third installment of The Black Witch Chronicles delivers on action, suspense, romance, and more! I very much look forward to the conclusion of this series.
I received a digital ARC courtesy of Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
xx
Susan
Crimson PeakmeetsAnnihilation in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s newest gothic novel. While the Gods of Jade and Shadow remains my all-time favorite novel, Mexican Gothic did not disappoint.
We head back to the beautiful country of Mexico in the 1950’s, to a hillside mansion modeled after the English countryside. Our heroine, Noemi, is strong willed and intelligent but also flawed by her own hubris. Beseeched by her father, she sets out to save her cousin, Catalina, after a letter arrives highlighting her deteriorating mental state. Upon arriving at High Place, Noemi’s psyche begins to unravel as she is tested by the spirits that haunt the Victorian mansion. She begins to alternate between questioning her own intelligence and her surroundings. Could the house be as malevolent as Catalina described? As with Gods of Jade and Shadow, Moreno spares no detail into building suspense and crafting a dark world filled with shadows lurking in corners. The victorian house and the rundown village are a classic setting for gothic novels but it is juxtaposed against the sunny countryside of Pachuca, Mexico. Interspersed with references to Grim’a dark fairy tale, the heroine encounters horror of the worst possible kind at the hands of her captors.
I really enjoyed Mexican Gothic for its innovative plot and setting. As a fan of horror in general, it’s pretty difficult to think of a thrill that hasn’t been done before. Moreno manages to weave a fresh tale of gothic horror using a very unique prop. At the center this tale is Ouroboros, the World Serpent, a symbol of life and death and is prevalent throughout our tale. While the plot is focused on the gothic mystery, there is a little nod to romance. However, don’t expect Wuthering Heights or Daphne. That said, if this sounds like a book you would love—order a copy today! You won’t regret it.
Also I don’t know if I have just been following the news recently but I pictured Howard Doyle (the patriarch) as Harvey Weinstein and that just made him even more ghastly.
5 stars to Mexican Gothic.
Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
xx
Susan
