Between publishers and bookstores and authors themselves clamoring for attention—preorder gifts! promotional temporary tattoos! listicles!!!—I sometimes forget to be grateful. It’s especially humbling, therefore, to come across a book that reminds me so powerfully that we are privileged to live in a time when such good writing on such meaningful topics is so readily available. …
People often repeat the truncated quote “blood is thicker than water,” forgetting that the full quote is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” Impressively, both of these mutually contradictory statements are true of The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton. Family, its pull, and its limits …
The last fifty pages of The Belles took me as long to read as the rest of the book, because I didn’t want the story to end. Plus, the tension was unbearable. There were so many betrayals and revelations packed into the last glittering moments, which is impressive, because the other 375 pages weren’t slow. …
When Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out, I was as delighted as anyone else. What a clever concept! I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was, a not-too-serious romp through Regency England and a droll abuse of copyright loopholes. And then came the swarm. I would go into more detail, but as with most …
The Hazel Wood, by Melissa Albert, is like three books for the price of one. It’s a mystery, a fairy tale, and then it’s a meta-meditation. What’s wonderful about it is that if you like even one of these, it will convince you on the other two counts. It’s charismatic. Its sheer audacity will compel …
The kingdom of Karthia is ruled by the dead and sustained by the living, and mediated by those with the Sight. It is a world so perfectly balanced that change itself has been forcibly banished: the undead King Wylding has decreed that all remain as it was when he lived, and for two hundred years …
It is not immediately apparently what ship The Forever Ship by Francesca Haig is referring to. The ship that comes from a more advanced country to save a violently divided nation? That same ship, but seen in the light of its potential to doom everyone? A metaphorical ship, bearing the final fate of humanity? Well, …
This is my favorite of the Wayward Children series thus far, and it’s not like the first two were slouches. After a stint on the moors in Down Among the Sticks and Bones, we now have the chance to return to Miss Eleanor West’s home for Wayward Children and see how everyone is faring after …
The next few months have some promising releases, and I’ve compiled the best of them all in one place. Cruel Prince – January 2: Holly Black never disappoints with her combination of adventure, romance, and true darkness. I anticipate being impressed once again by her take on Faerie, a realm she imbues with deadly tricks …
When we last saw Vasya in The Bear and the Nightingale, she had just survived the onslaught of the Bear, who wanted to bring unending death and night to Rus. Vasya’s witchy powers, combined with the might of the god of the snows, Morozko, saved Rus but doomed her father and stepmother, and now Vasya …