Jane Yolen was YA before there was YA, so it’s interesting to revisit a classic author via new work. Especially since that new work is a novel told entirely in poetry. Jason Reynolds and and Jacqueline Woodson are proof that the novel in verse is not just viable, but supremely potent. But what about SFF …
My first introduction to GRRM was via Game of Thrones, which I quickly fell in love with the ability to juggle multiple characters and varying storylines. So when I got the chance to read and review Nightflyers, a collection of science fiction short stories, I was ecstatic. One of the greatest storytellers of a generation …
I didn’t so much read Grim Lovelies as swallow it whole, devouring it in less than a day. It was a fast-paced, action-heavy narrative with innovative magic and a diverse and appealing cast. And because it was fun, it was easy to rush past its flaws, though there were a few. Because of that it …
Nobody ever asked the little girl from The Exorcist what she wanted. The demon didn’t ask for her consent before taking over her body; but the priests didn’t ask her permission to cast the devil out of her, either. The whole movie is about Regan, and yet we never actually get her story. She has …
The woods are a perennial (heh) theme in fantasy, and I could go on and on about the Jungian undertones of quests into the primordial unknown, but I’ll spare you in favor of the internet’s favorite format: another list! Here are ten upcoming or recent books to get you in the mood for autumn walks, …
When I was born, my great grandmother put a black fist bracelet around my wrist to protect me from evil spirits. And I was six, the first time my grandmother called me a child of Shango. I grew up knowing about the Orishas, connecting their qualities to those of Catholic saints. I knew the facts …
Wow. Just…wow. In a good way. In the best way. You want to know how to do horror and gore and also troubled family dynamics and colonialism in a single YA book? Look no further. Rebecca Schaeffer’s Not Even Bones is your dark remedy to the fact that Darkdawn got pushed back. This is one …
Archivist Wasp was one of my favorite books of 2015 and up there for one of my favorite new fantasy titles, period. It was such a rough, raw book, the literary equivalent of a rebel yell, and not just because it was a debut. Furious and dreamlike and achingly emotional, it was everything I never …
Bright We Burn (Kiersten White) – July 10 – WHY is this trilogy ending? I mean, I know it has to. It’s not a series. Also, it’s based on historical figures who are extremely dead. (Well, one of them is a reinterpretation of Vlad Tepes, basis for Dracula, so maybe it could go on a …
Out of the Blue is Sophie Cameron’s debut novel about how the world continues after tragedy. It isn’t a morbid or cynical social commentary but a beautiful matter of fact. The novel is written in first person from the point of view of protagonist Jaya, a teenaged Sri Lankan girl from Scotland. The story begins …