Reading Queen E

Genres: fantasy | sci-fi | historical (non)fiction Check me out on Insta @reading_queen_e

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Pandemic 1918 review

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: epidemiology, history, 20th Century history, medical history, Spanish flu

I was fully onboard with this book, loved reading it, and was prepared to give it 5 stars, until...Arnold got the flu strain wrong. The Spanish flu wasn't H5N1, anyone interested in epidemiology worth their salt knows that. It was H1N1. Y'know, the same strain as the 2009 pandemic? Well, not the exact same strain, but there was actually a whole thing about it at the time and the point is that H1N1, one of the predominate flu strains every year, is the same one that mutated into a highly-pathogenic subclade in 1918. This is a fairly massive unforced error on Arnold's part and makes me question the veracity of the rest of the book, despite how much I enjoyed it.

The chapters are a decent length, I don't think any of them are more than maybe 25 pages (?), and each is balanced pretty well between anecdotal stories about the pandemic and medical fact (or 'fact'?). I obviously knew about the Spanish flu before reading this, but I had never taken the time to really learn about it, so I found the contents of this book to be pretty interesting. There's also now the obvious connection between the 1918 pandemic and the 2019 one. I was actually surprised about how much some of the symptoms of the Spanish flu matched with covid (air hunger, cytokine storm, etc.). But I was also surprised at just how brutal the Spanish flu was. I didn't know about the cholera-like cyanosis or the hemorrhaging.

I think Arnold really did capture the horror of what it was like living through the pandemic. It's hard to imagine what it must've been like at the time, though I think I'll probably check out some of the first-person accounts Arnold mentions. Testament of Youth is one that's been on my radar for a while, so maybe it's finally time to pick that one up. Again, it's eerily similar to covid, and just like how the Spanish flu 'vanished' from collective memory due to trauma, I kind of see covid going the same way.

Overall I did like this read, which is why it still has 4 stars instead of 3 or less, but the H5N1/H1N1 issue is a pretty glaring one.

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Automatic Noodle review

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: cozy sci-fi, robot narrators, multiple POVs

I'm honestly not really sure how to rate this. It's okay, I was entertained, but I was also left largely wanting. It's neither cozy enough nor plot-heavy enough to really fall into 'cozy sci-fi' or 'traditional sci-fi,' though I do feel it falls more on the cozy side. I'm leaving it as a 4 for now, but might drop it to a 3 later.

I do have to say, I'm quite intrigued by the world this book paints a picture of. It's set in a world where California and the US fought a war, after which California seceded and became its own nation. It's also set in the not-too-distant future, something still in this century, but has human-intelligence robots (HEEI) that not only helped during the war, but are common enough in daily life most people don't bat an eye at them. I found this setting to be pretty interesting and would love reading more about this world in general.

The book is told in alternating POVs between the four robots--Sweetie, Arms, Staybehind, and Cayenne--all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to open a noodle restaurant. They were aleady coworkers when the book opened, so they knew each other, but I have to say the book is missing that 'found family' feeling that I think would've helped to elevate it. As it is, the robots really do mostly feel like coworkers. Arms and Cayenne are pretty close, and Sweetie has a close friendship with another bot (Lemon), so they are written to have close relationships, but I don't entirely see that levle cohesion with this group.

I enjoyed reading about them setting up the shop and trying to figure out the logistics of everything. They hit a bump in the road when someone starts review bombing the shop, so there is some tension beyond just getting ingredients and taking out ads.

That being said, I felt the ending was kind of abrupt. The story went from them figuring out the review bombing scheme and getting back on their feet, discussing other ways to draw customers in and starting a community, and then the next page was the acknowledgements. I know cozy stories tend to be on the shorter side, but a little more time to chill would've been nice.

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The Haar review

3.5/5 stars Recommended if you like: horror, small towns, creature horror

Well...hm

I've been dipping my toe more and more into horror over the past few years and enjoy authors like T. Kingfisher, Jeff Vandermeer, and Cassandra Khaw, and have found a preference for horrror that's more on the speculative side vs traditional horror. Most of the horror I read keeps the gore to a minimum, when there's any explicit gore at all.

This started out quite promising. Muriel and the other denizens of Witchaven are being forced out of their homes by a billionaire developer but are standing their ground. One day, while walking along the beach, Muriel spots an injured....something and decides to bring it home and try to help it. This creature, which she dubs Avalon, is the source of a lot of what happens next.

That all falls along pretty well with the kind of horror I usually read, so I was all onboard for that. Avalon feasts on blood, but that's not really an issue, blood isn't really gory. Except, well, then Avalon moves on to eating people. Gruesomely. On page. There's lots of mention of Avalon ripping guts out and exploding bodies and a rather memorable paragraph about a penis melting.

Now look, eating people is fine. The blob/Lighthouse Keeper in Annihlation eats people, Shesheshen in Someone You Can Build a Nest In eats people. It's whatever. But I so do not need a detailed description of how the monster in question explodes someone's head or sprays their intestines across the living room. It's a bit much. And it's unnecessary imo. For me, horror doesn't come from getting blood and guts everywhere, it's not even scary. I like creeping horror, insiduous horror, horror with implications. And when horror is done like that, you don't need the blood and guts to be creepy/scary/etc.

I did enjoy this book, I was interested in seeing what came next, but the gratuitous gore really was a lot. It's not something I enjoy reading and, personally, I tend to think horror is better without it. So, the first half of this was better than the second half for me.

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A Long and Speaking Silence review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: novellas, LGBTQ+ characters, prequels, oral storytelling

Empress of Salt and Fortune review

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain review

Into the Riverlands review

Mammoths at the Gate review

Brides of High Hill review

A Mouthful of Dust review

Big thanks to Tordotcom for a finished copy!

I would read a hundred books following Chih and Almost Brilliant, and I loved seeing a clearly younger version of them both. It was really interesting to see Almost Brilliant take on a kind of guiding role as compared to later on, when Chih and Almost Brilliant feel more like equals.

It was also interesting to see Chih before they found their footing as a cleric. They're freshly graduated from novice to cleric and still trying to figure out their style and how to gather stories when they're out on their own. Chih in the other stories is pretty good at drawing stories out of people regardless of the situation, but the Chih here makes missteps and struggles at times to connect. I liked seeing them grow as a cleric and begin develop into who they are later on.

The focus of this story is rather politically relevant currently. Chih is stuck in the town of Luntien, working to pay for their room and board while they await their next paycheck from the Singing Hills Abbey. But Luntien isn't just a place for Chih to stop, it's a place many people from the Verdant Isles are coming to in search of a place to settle, even if temporarily. But the people of Luntien aren't happy with their new neighbors and tensions are steadily rising.

I think Vo does a good job illustrating the tension between refugees/migrants and the people who already live somewhere. There's definitely degrees of tolerance among the Luntiens, and people are more or less willing to show their tolerance, depending on their family background. I also liked how Vo didn't just show the surface of the difference between Luntiens, but we actually got to know the details and understand the different mindsets (even when wrong).

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That Which Feeds Us release!

For the world’s wealthiest, Kōpaʻa Island Resort is more than a destination. It’s the ultimate escape. With no cell service or Wi-Fi, the Hawaiian island is a coveted wellness retreat renowned for its persimmon orchard and promises of rejuvenation.

But their dream vacation is Lehua’s nightmare. When her twin sister, Ohia, goes missing, Lehua follows her trail to Kōpaʻa to find her. Instead, Lehua is cut off from civilization—and help—after the island’s boat leaves without her, stranding her with the resort’s lavish guests and enigmatic staff.

As Lehua investigates Ohia’s disappearance, she discovers her missing sister isn’t the island’s only mystery. Kōpaʻa’s rich exterior and sweet persimmons hide its dark plantation past. And Lehua can’t ignore the dreams haunting her each night—nor the warning telling her to leave the island at once. To uncover what happened to Ohia, Lehua will have to unearth the island’s bloody history and face the horrors that lurk within its sugarcane fields—or risk being consumed by them.

Bookshop.org

Barnes & Noble

This is the perfect book to wrap up AAPI month (and it's a perfect summer horror)! It mixes history and horror, anti-colonial themes, and paranormal intrigue all within Lehua and Ohia's story. The book also has a good mix of real and paranormal horror, and Kendall does a good job of making things feel Not Quite Right.

Lehua is no stranger to death, her grandparents died and she works in a mortuary, but personal grief and professional capacity are one thing, facing actual death, ghosts, and more is another thing entirely, and it definitely tests Lehua's mettle. I liked seeing how Lehua handled things and the journey she went on to figure out what was going on at Kōpaʻa.

Interested? Check out my full review!

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The False Vow review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: morally gray characters, schemes, mysteries

The Weaver Bride review

Big thanks to Delacorte Press, NetGalley, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Weaver Bride is a book I knew needed a sequel as soon as I finished it. I was super excited to be approved for this ARC and it definitely lived up to it!

One of the things I thought when reading the first book was that Lovett and Eliot made for a poor match, while Lovett and Noé made for an interesting one. There’s definitely a bit of a villain4villain vibe going on with them that I absolutely love, even though either of them are really villains. I will say that I thought Lovett was a little more hostile toward Noé than I was expecting, though the more time the two spend together the more she retracts her claws.

At the start of the book, Lovett is nearing her wedding and trying to find a way to spread the word about what the Weavers are doing to silkwitches. She’s allied with Noé to bring his father down, though without an expansion of her magic, there’s little movement on that front. Eliot has a little more luck getting an ally who would help bust the Weaver secret open, but there’s already clear tension between him and Lovett from their first scene.

Lovett remains the same morally gray heroine from book 1 and finds herself entangled in a new murder mystery. She’s cutthroat and mean and I love it. I particularly liked getting to see her flex those skills against (and with) similar characters. She and Anais make a surprising duo, but I think they work for the same reason I think Lovett and Noé work: they’re the same at heart. In a world determined to crush you, why not be ambitious and morally flexible and a little mean.

Most of the characters from book 1 make a reappearance in this one, Bastian has the bright idea to make the Vainglory competitors Lovett’s bridesmaids, and I enjoyed seeing how alliances shifted and merged. As mentioned, Lovett and Anais end up on the same side of things, and I loved their prickly friendship. Manon, Nathalie, the Owl, and Clio are all also fairly prominent side characters.

I do wish this book was a bit longer or that it was a trilogy. There is a fairly closed ending, I think all the character development threads are tied up by the end, but I do feel that end came somewhat quick. I would also like to see more of how Lovett and co. deal with a rather public reveal that occurs a couple chapters before the end, and particularly how that ties into announcing what the Weavers have been doing. It’s not necessary for the story to be complete, but I’m definitely curious.

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Song of the Saltings release!

On the isolated island of Brack, the people live by an ancient bargain: every year, a sacrifice must be made to the Glimm, the creature that haunts the salt marshes. Once, it demanded children. Eight years ago, it should have taken Lotta. Instead, the monster spared her and claimed her pony, shattering tradition and anointing her both folk hero and object of suspicion.

Now sixteen, Lotta tends the Council’s sacrificial horses, keeping her distance from the islanders who whisper about her fate. But something is stirring. The island hums beneath her feet, and a song threads through her dreams. Is the Glimm calling Lotta back?

When she crosses paths with Moss—a boy once hidden from sacrifice—a daring bog rescue sparks a chain of events that forces them both to question the Council’s rule and the lore that binds their people. As crops and animals are blighted and uncanny weather plagues the community, Lotta and Moss must decide whether to obey the Council or risk everything to uncover the island’s deepest secrets.

Because on Brack, monsters come in many forms.

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Bookshop.org

This book is a sort of The Lottery x The Hunger Games mashup, with folkloric and dystopic elements. The characters read on the younger side of YA, I think they're around 16, so at times they do say or think things I was kind of scratching my head over.

It was interesting getting to read from both Lotta and Moss' POVs. They've had very different experiences growing up, both shaped by the annual lottery, and that's definitely shaped how they interact with the world around them. Likewise, they're both outcasts, though for very different reasons, but that allows them to bond a bit even when they're still unsure of one another.

Intrigued? Check out my full review!

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A Forgery of Fate review

4.5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, underwater worlds, art, Beauty and the Beast, fake dating

This is my first Elizabeth Lim book and I have to say I enjoyed it! Tru was a layered character and I enjoyed her interactions with the other characters in the book.

Tru's life starts out relatively normally, but her family is plunged into poverty when her father's ship sinks during a storm, resulting in his death and loss of their only income. We then flash forward to Tru 'present day,' where she uses her art skills to sell forgeries to help keep her family afloat. I love it when art is included in books, and it was very much a focus here. Initially, Tru only copies the styles of other artists, but we do see her develop her own talent and skills over the course of the novel. I would've liked it if the book went into more detail about Tru's painting process and the look and feel of the paintings. We get some of it, but not as much detail as I'd like, in part because Tru has the Sight, which she channels through painting, but which means she'll go into a trance-like state and neither her nor us really get to see her process when that happens.

It's clear from the get-go how much Tru loves her family. She's close with her father before he passes, and cherishes the paintbrush he bought her. Likewise, while she doesn't always get along with her sisters, she would do anything for them. And, despite her mother's mistakes, it's clear Tru loves her deeply as well. Throughout the novel, Tru's family remains her motivation for things, though the feelings she develops for Elang certainly don't hurt either.

Elang is harder to get a feel for. He's one of those characters who puts up a stoic front at first and is, at times, like talking to a brick wall. But the more Tru gets to know him, the more he seems to flip flop between friendly, brick wall, and rude. While it's a common trope, I never understand why male characters (and it's always men) turn to meanness to keep people at a distance. Cool aloofness works just as well, I promise, and it doesn't make anyone cry. That being said, I do like Elang as well, and it's pretty clear from early on that he's keeping Tru at a distance for a reason. I mean, he's got a curse and he's trying to overthrow his grandfather, that's enough to stress anyone out. I liked him more once he warmed up to Tru and we got some friendlier moments between them. I don't really think there was enough of that to build a believable romance though.

I loved Tru's sisters and think we got a really good feel for them. Falina, the fashionista and seamstress of the family, and Tru don't always get along, but it's clear they're used to working together to keep their family afloat, and each is willing to do anything for the other. Nomi is the academic 'baby' of the family with an explosive (literally) streak. While she's the youngest, she's also more than willing to help out her family in whatever way she can, preferably with fireworks. I would've loved to see more of their interactions and have them problem solve things together, but alas Tru is separated from her sisters for most of the story.

I will say, I do think the side characters are a weak point in the story. Shanizhun is a water demon and I do feel like she's the side character aside from Tru's sisters that we get the best feel for, but even still, I don't really know who Shani is. Considering Tru thinks of her as a close friend, I want to know more about Shani's personality outside of sassy and dark, but that's basically all we get. Likewise, Mailoh is Tru's turtle lady's maid and the two dote on each other but...I know next to nothing about Mailoh herself other than 1) she's a turtle, and 2) her brother is Caisan, the general (captain? I don't remember his rank). Caisan is another example, he's there, he's clearly trusted, but I know basically nothing about him. I really like in books when the side characters feel fleshed out and I really feel as if I, and the main character(s), know them. Unfortunately, that isn't the case with most of the side characters in this book.

Having multiple plotlines definitely benefitted the story. Elang and Tru enter into a fake marriage in order for Tru to help Elang overthrow the dragon king via painting (it makes sense once explained) and also to save Tru's sisters from being sold to a gangster to pay off their mother's gambling debts. Then, on top of that, Tru has reason to suspect that her father might be alive, adding an additional motivation and plotline to the mix. And, of course, there's Elang's curse and the potential romance between him and Tru. This helped keep things interesting even during parts that were slower, such as when Tru is working on practicing her dragon king painting.

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Allergic review

3.5/5 stars Recommended if you like: nonfiction, science, medicine, allergies

Honestly, I'm not really sure if this is a 3.5 or 4 stars. I was already on the fence, though I had it listed as 4 stars before I looked further into MacPhail, and then I decided to drop that half star once I saw and read some of her other writing. If you're looking for someone with scientific acumen with a firm grasp on the human and sociological implications of said science...look elsewhere. If you're looking for a primer on the topic before diving into more rigorous text, then it works well enough for that purpose.

I should note, I looked into MacPhail, she has no research publications that I could find from after 2015 and little to no non-academic work that I could find since then up until the publication of this book. While I wasn't planning to read anything else by her, I did see that she had a book on Ebola and global health, as well as a (non-academic) article about the topic from the 2014 Ebola epidemic, which I believe is an excerpt from said book (though I could be wrong). I read the article and Big Yikes. While her book on it might articulate her thoughts better, the framing of global health in the article I read was quite frankly ridiculous. Are there problems in the field of global health and with global health responses? Absolutely. Is saying that global health doesn't exist and framing it as a virus helpful to literally anyone? Absolutely not. It 100% turned me even further off to reading anything else by her and succeeded in convincing me my review should be dropped down a star.

This book wasn't what I wanted it to be, and while informative, it also felt quite repetitive. One of the areas where the book fails is the tone. MacPhail doesn't seem to have grasped that if someone is reading this book, then they already have an interest in its contents. She does not need to convince them that allergies matter or are worth studying, and she likely does not need to inform the reader that allergies decrease quality of life. If someone is reading about allergies....don't you think they already know those things?

Another area where I think this book fails is that MacPhail tries to make herself too relatable. Her writing puts on a kind of wide, doe-eyed innocence that isn't quite believable, chuckling slightly as it proclaims 'I had no idea how bad allergies had gotten' or 'how many people had them' or 'other people really don't understand,' and elbow nudges the reader as if she expects us to agree to this level of ignorance on the topic. It didn't make me 'relax' or feel as if we'd found common ground, rather it almost immediately made me distrust the rest of the book. MacPhail's father died of a bee sting....and she simply never bothered to research allergies at all until now? Likewise, MacPhail is a medical anthropologist, yes, but she fails to bring that knowledge and experience to the forefront in any meaningful way (and in what I have to say is a marked departure from every other medical anthropologist I've read). Why am I reading a book about a topic that seems to be a hobby from a woman who fails to use her own expertise?

Beyond the narrative issues with the book, I did learn some interesting things from it. Like, did you know fire ants are natural predators of ticks? But also about the distinction between IgE-mediated allergies and non-IgE allergies and why that distinction makes it so hard to diagnose and treat allergic conditions. This is the kind of stuff I was interested in, so I'm glad at least some of it made it into the book, even if we did get repetitive info.

I found the history of allergies to be interesting as well, and I hadn't realized allergic conditions had arisen so recently in our evolutionary history. I guess that answers the question to what happened if a royal taste tester had a food allergy, lol, they simply probably didn't. Likewise, I found the history of how we treat allergies to be interesting, though not wholly unsurprising. Of course doctors thought it was in patients' heads at first, at least until the science was further along and the number of allergy sufferers became impossible to ignore. But some of the early treatments were downright astonishing, I'm shocked in some cases that allergy sufferers survived.

I liked the summaries MacPhail provided on the hypotheses for why allergies occur and what's making them worse. I do think we could've gotten a more in-depth look at allergy evolution. MacPhail poses the question a few times in the book, but I feel she never really digs into it satisfactorily enough. If she is a medical anthropologist and science writer, surely she has her own thoughts? MacPhail makes sure to emphasize that allergies, and their increasing prevalence, are a multifactorial issue and no one hypothesis can explain them. That being said, she never really follows through with combining the hypotheses. Yes, genes play a role. And yes, so does climate change. And yes, so does the hygiene hypothesis and chemicals and food additives. But none of them play the whole role, and what I was yearning for as I learned more about each of these hypotheses was for MacPhail to put it all together into a comprehensive hypothesis detailing how each aspect worked in tandem to create some of the effects we're seeing today.

I also liked the interviews we got from allergists and allergy sufferers. The allergists were able to provide some deeper insight into their research, as well as the research of the past 30-40 years. On the flip side, the allergy sufferers were able to provide insight into both common and uncommon allergy conditions and the struggles they face socially and medically. I was particularly interested in Emily Brown's story (now there's someone who should write a book) and wish the constraints of the book had allowed for a deeper look into her family's journey.

Overall, the book is a decent read and does have some good information in it about allergies, new research and hypothesis, and the history of allergy research. That being said, it also suffers from having long chapters and being repetitive, and also from an author who seems to be trying too hard to be relatable, to the detriment of the narrative tone.

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The Gravewood review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: paranormal, vampires, roadtrips, post-apocalyptic fantasy

This is the second book I've read recently where it's genre fiction that just-so-happens to be in a post-apocalyptic (re: post-climate collapse) setting. As someone who used to devour post-apocalyptic books, I'm really loving this combination and I'm looking forward to seeing more books combining fantasy/horror/sci-fi with casual post-apocalypse.

Something that I thought was particularly clever about the vampires in this book is that the Rot, which Turns people, has two results depending on how your body reacts to it. In one, you become a vampire, with all the night-stalking, blood-drinking that that implies. In the other outcome, however, you end up 'hollowed out' and bloodthirsty, but undeniably something different. It took me a until near the end of the book to figure it out. The Rot turns you either into a vampire or into a zombie, which I think is brilliant. They're both the walking dead, both feed on people (blood vs. viscera), why shouldn't they be two sides of the same coin? I'd never really thought of it that way before, so I liked that Andrew put that spin on it.

I have to say, I loved both Shea and Lysander from the get go. They can both be a bit prickly, but it's clear that Shea's prickliness comes from the things that have happened in her life, and her desperation to keep at least some of it together. Shea is trying to protect herself, and then the people she loves, and her respones to a lot of things comes from that. I also think Shea has felt at least a little on the outskirts of things her entire life, and she's mostly done a good job of hiding that, but sparts still peak out at times, which also sometimes contributes to her prickliness.

Lysander, on the other hand, is a bit more of a mystery, but he's intriguing. We get fewer POV chapters from him than from Shea, so we really are in the dark a lot with him, but Lys is (or was) running from something and managed to build himself a kingdom in the Gravewood. He runs a lot more hot/cold than Shea does as well, and it did sometimes chafe the way he'd talk to Cyrus (but frankly, Cyrus isn't around enough for me to really know if he cares). At the same time, I think it's clear he's also trying to protect himself and the people he cares about, and in his mind, the best way to do that sometimes is to push them away.

We also have Poppy as a side character, one of Shea's two best friends and someone who is perpetually colorful and who has an answer to virtually everything. She also has a penchant for picking up strays (she brings her possum Kit with them on the roadtrip and apparently previously rescued a milk snake), so it's not really surprising she takes to Lys without much issue. I liked Poppy's ability to go with the flow, she provided a calm and level head that was desperately needed since neither Shea nor Lys nor Asher have ever had a chill day in their lives.

That brings us to Asher, the older brother of Poppy and Shea's other best friend, and someone who was teetering on the edge of....something with Shea prior to enlisting. Like Shea and Lysander, Asher wants to protect the people he cares about, and with his training is perfectly capable of taking out any person/vampire/zombie that gets in his way. And let me tell you, he does not like Lys (though honestly it feels a bit enemies-to-lovers-esque, so who knows, maybe they'll trouple up). I actually found it kind of hard to get a read on Asher at times, since it's clear he and Shea used to be close, but he's come back from Wood Watch changed and more guarded than before.

A lot of the book is taken up roadtripping from New Hampshire to Florida, and I have to say I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic roadtrips. The Darkest Minds also has a powered up, post-apocalyptic ensemble East Coast roadtrip and it's one of my all-time favorite books, so I loved seeing that same sort of vibe here (just with a lot more killing). A lot of the stops on the journey also provide little peaks into Lysander's past, so as the group travels further south, we get to know him a bit better and come to understand more why he is the way he is. That being said, a lot of those stops on the trip also created more questions, some of which are still left open at the end of the book.

I'm already super excited for book 2 and I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to wait an entire year to get it.

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Everything for Everyone review

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: speculative fiction, post-collapse, LGBTQ characters, alternate world

I've had this on my radar for a while and knew it was styled as an oral history, but I was surpised at just how much it reads like an archived collection of stories. The introduction is particularly academic feeling, and even though I know it's fiction, I had to double check, lol. I will say, because of its academic tone, the introduction is kind of hard to get through, it's a bit dense, but it does provide some interesting context for the terminology and events in the book.

The rest of the book is split between twelve 'oral' histories from people who lived through the tumultuous events that resulted in the commune system, as well as one person who has grown up in the commune. There was actually a pretty big range of people and experiences, I was a little worried they would start to blur togther, but all the interviewees felt very distinct.

There were definitely some interviews I preferred over others, and some that felt a little off to me, but overall I enjoyed reading them. One thing that did stick out to me, as someone trained in ethnographic research, there were moments when the interviewers seemed to inappropriately push the interviewees. Since there was this whole hoopla about the interviewees being able to stop or redirect the interviews, the pushing did kind of rub me the wrong way. Like with S. Addams, or the interview with Connor Stephens, where the interviewee was clearly exhibiting symptoms of distress but the interview continued without really addressing it or trying to mitigate it. Obviously this is fiction, but still. For a supposed utopia, that really seems like an oversight, though perhaps it's meant to be a kind of indication that not everything is perfect in this new world.

It was super interesting to read about the various revolutions and the resulting rebuilding. Most of the book is focused on NYC and the New York communes, but there are characters who started out in the Plains (US), China, and Palestine as well. I really liked that we got to see beyond NYC and get a glimpse of what else was going on in the world during the revolution and rebuilding years. It was also interesting to see how some of those ideas then got imported into the NYC communes.

Got to admit though, I really hope the AI they're using in this future is the analytical kind rather than generative, the fact they still use it definitely rubbed me the wrong way, though tbf they don't really clarify what kind, so maybe it's okay...

This book was published in 2022, and I have to say it's definitely a little...interesting to see how some of what the author(s) referenced in contributing to collapse has happened since then. Or at least, something similar to those events. I suppose that's how you know a fiction book is well-researched, when real life ends up mirroring it.

Overall a pretty interesting book and an interesting look at an alternate future than the one we seem to be running toward.

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Endangered Eating review

4.5 stars Recommended if you like: foodways, American cuisine, American culture, endangered foods

Some of the chapters in this book can get pretty long, but they absolutely fly by. Lohman does a good job telling the story of both the foods on the Ark of Taste as well as the people who originally produced them and the people who produce them now. She also provides two recipes for each ingredient in the book, which I liked. I'll definitely be trying some of them.

I was interested in this book partly to hear about the endangered foods of America and the way people were saving them. This book does address that, each chapter is dedicated to a different food/ingredient, however it was more about historical foods that are no longer being grown/used more than about the oncoming food crisis we are/will be facing due to climate change. That being said, it was definitely interesting to read about the heirloom foods and their rise + fall in American cuisine.

A lot (most?) of the foods in this book were originally cultivated by non-white Americans, and Lohman acknowledges both the cultural significance of the foods as well as the oppression that resulted in their downturn. Some of the foods simply dropped out of favor for various reasons, like the heirloom dates and the Carolina Runner, while others were purposefully suppressed, like reefnet fishing. She also touches on the subject of who gets to revive the foods and whether it matters why someone is reviving it. People have different answers to these questions, and it was interesting to see the different takes on it.

I'd never heard of the specific variety of foods on this list, even though I enjoy some of their mainstream cousins (love me some dates), and I loved learning more about these rarer varieties and getting to learn about their history. While, as mentioned, some of the chapters were fairly long, I did wish that there were more chapters in the book. I'd love to hear about more than 8 foods, and while Lohman does provide the Ark of Taste as a source, it's fun to read the full history of various foods in one place.

[elliepassmore]

The Facemaker review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: history, historical nonfiction, WWI, medicine, medical history

I had a hard time deciding what to write in this review. I really enjoyed this book and found it to be fascinating. It's a period and subject I don't know much about, and I liked learning about it, but it also makes it hard for me to know what to say in the review.

This book flips between three different main 'topics': the brutality of WWI, Gillies himself, and plastic surgery. While this may seem like a lot to switch between, Fitzharris actually does a good job of transitioning the book between the three topics in a way that makes sense. At the beginning, we get an introduction to the nascent field of plastic surgery, then an introduction to WWI and the realities of life in the trenches, before we return to plastic surgery and introduce some of the big names who trained Gillies (this also serves as his introduction).

Most of the medical nonfiction I read focuses pretty heavily on the biological/anatomical/molecular, so it was interesting to read a book focused largely on a field of medicine. While plastic surgery was around prior to WWI, the casualties from that war really ramped up the field and made it respectable on its own. A lot of the techniques and methods developed during the war went on to be foundational in that field, and the surgeons working on soldiers did try to publish academic articles and textbooks when they could because they knew their work would have massive impacts for future surgeons.

I liked reading about how Gillies got his ward setup and how it essentially went from just him to a much larger, internationally cooperative ward. It was also really interesting to see the different ways the surgeons innovated to ensure the best possible outcome for their patients, considering both aesthetic and function. I also thought it was interesting to learn more about the masks some people wore to cover facial wounds that weren't repaired by a plastic surgeon (or were repaired, but terribly). I knew masks had been used by some, but I didn't know the various ways they could be made and the pros/cons of the different types.

While I haven't read too much about WWI, I would like to. I think Fitzharris does a good job humanizing the war and bringing its impacts into sharp focus. A lot is already known about the general conditions of the war, but we get to see the inner thoughts of some of the wounded as well as the nurses and doctors caring for them, and I appreciated getting that inside look.

Overall, I found this to be a very informative and interesting read. It stays informative without getting bogged down in super technical details.

[elliepassmore]

State of Paradise review

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: speculative fiction, stream of consciousness, cli-fi, unreliable narrators

This was...definitely a weird one. I'm honestly not sure how I want to rate it. I don't love it, but I don't dislike it either. There's definitely a lot going on in the story, a lot of which doesn't totally seem connected but does end up providing a whole snapshot of the time and place in which this book occurs.

For one, it was kind of hard to get into the story. It's told in a quasi-stream-of-conscious manner, where any and all topics that crosses the narrator's brain seem to end up in the story. We start by learning about her husband's running habit, then about pilgrimages (which is what her husband specializes in), and then a much longer description of the Florida town they're in. The book continues like that, with something happening 'in the present,' which cues something for the narrator to discuss, be it a memory of the past or a correlation to history or the environment or whatever, really. As I mentioned above, it does work toward a cohesive whole, but it's definitely difficult to get into when you topic jump seemingly at random.

Once I go used to the narrative style, it was a fairly interesting read. There's a lot, and I mean a lot about Florida in the book, but that's kind of what you get with speculative fiction/cli-fi: setting as story, setting as character. I liked seeing the subtle changes that occurred to the town over the course of the book.

I also liked this sheen of normalcy that was over everything, it actually felt very realistic. Oh, it's raining unexpectedly for days on end and the radars aren't reading properly? Better get the generator and stay on the upper floors of the house. Oh, it's flooding from the ground up with no rain? Guess we better get the kayaks. End of the world cult? As long as they're not bothersome, it doesn't really matter. I just really enjoyed something about the narrator's ability to make even the craziest stuff seem normal.

Though, I get there's a lot of weird stuff going on, but why is the narrator not more freaked out by Arizona?! Admittedly it does kind of add a funny tilt to the story and in context the narrator treating this mildly falls right in line with everything else, but good lord, I would've flipped on that lady.

The ELECTRA stuff was weird and I'm not entirely sure it fits within the rest of the story. It was a nice mystery at first, and added a good bit of spookiness to things, but the reveal itself was, I feel, somewhat lackluster and also somehow broke suspension of belief. ELECTRA itself adds to the atmosphere, ELECTRA's reveal breaks the genre, and not in a way I necessarily liked. The cli-fi/speculative fiction elements were fine, and the ELECTRA reveal is fine, but both together in the same story just felt kind of strange.

[elliepassmore]

Scorpion Deep review

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: small towns, the occult, ocean folklore, horror, body horror

Big thanks to Feiwel & Friends, Netgalley, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TW child abuse, suicidal ideation

I'll start off by saying I love the ocean. I'm definitely a water baby, always have been, so I understand Jonathan's draw to the ocean and the way it functions as a sort of escape. Plus, Jonathan grew up in a seaside town with fables of kelpies and leviathans, of course he sees the ocean as something that can save him.

Jonathan's had a hard life. His father is abusive, his grandfather has dementia, and his mom is...complicated. On top of that, Jonathan is the quiet one in his friend group, the one who feels on the fringes when the other two start dating. His desire to escape, to have a different life (or even justice), is so strong it's no wonder he gets pulled into the allure of Scorpion Deep, especially when so much else in his life seems to go wrong at once.

In terms of his friends, I liked Rae and Ellis well enough at the start, but for a good chunk of the story I did not find them likeable. Maybe I should give them grace because I'm almost a decade older than them, but their reactions to finding out about Jonathan's college secret felt....massively overblown. Ellis in particular does seem to come to his senses later on in the book, but I can't say I really get a feel for whether Rae does or not.

Scorpion Deep comes into the picture as this eldritch god that's been sleeping beneath Kelcarrow for decades (centuries?). He's furious at having been trapped, but Jonathan seems to wear some of his edges away and for a while he really doesn't seem that malevolent. But then things start happening. Things beyond what Jonathan intends. After all, how do you say no to a god? That's when the horror vibes start to set in. These parts naturally have some gore, so I'm kind of at odds with myself where on the one hand, I'd've liked more horror vibes, but on the other I don't like gory horror so.....not really sure how to solve that one, lol.

The ending is left quite open, which works with the story I think, though I do kind of wish we got a more clear conclusion. However, I will say that I think the ending plays well into the things that happened throughout the rest of the story and really continues the "what's real/what's not?" vibes that start setting in partway through the story. The story also starts to make you question exactly what is going down. If something happened, did it really? And if it did, did it go down the way Jonathan narrates it or a different way? I actually really liked trying to figure things out, and the ending definitely plays into that.

[elliepassmore]

The Cruelest Miles review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: dogs, US history, small town stories, medical history, history, adventure

TW animal death

I was interested in this book because of the diptheria epidemic, little did I know I'd become so invested in sled dogs and racing.

The book starts off with a brief history of Nome, Alaska and how it became the town it was when the diptheria outbreak occurred in 1925. From there we get some of the history of sled dog racing, which was actually pretty interesting, and then into the story of the epidemic and the race to 1) get the cure to Alaska, and 2) get the cure from Fairbanks to Nome. Most of the book did focus on this last point, and while it was super interesting, I would've liked to know more about the epidemic than what we ended up getting. Nome doesn't seem to have been that big of a town and diptheria seems to have spread quickly, on top of the clear resource strain, I would've liked more information about what it was like for the doctor and nurses on the ground, and maybe also for other people -- surely there were letters and diaries?!

Since 1925 was relatively pre-telephone in Alaska, coordinating getting the diptheria antitoxin from Fairbanks to Nome was quite a feat. For Nome's part, they sent out their best sled racer to a nearby town where he could meet other teams and make the roundtrip back to Nome. Relatively easy coordination there. But the rest of the journey involved multiple dog teams and rest stops, coordinating via telephone and wire and trying to make runs in suboptimal conditions (-60F, blizzards, after dark, etc.). Both dogs and humans suffered making these runs, but were determined to get the antitoxin where it needed to be. A lot of the dog teams were led by Inupiat, and the Salisburys made sure to call out their contributions and the role of Indigenous Alaskans as a whole.

On top of the sled dog teams, there were also efforts going on behind-the-scenes to get even more antitoxin to Nome via plane and boat. The first air mail transports had just been done in Alaska, so there was a good amount of hype around that idea. Alas, Alaska in the winter is not very friendly to pre-WWII era planes, let alone ones that have been sitting around unused for a decade. I actually thought the politicking and conversations around plane vs dog transport to be pretty interesting. I was rooting for the dogs, since that's how the story is setup, but as a small plane lover myself, I was invested in seeing how this would play out.

Overall this was a super interesting story about a little-known part of American history. Came for the diptheria, stayed for the sled dogs.

[elliepassmore]

Morsel review + release!

4/5 stars Recommended if you like: Appalachian Gothic, cults, horror, monsters, folk horror

Bookshop.org

Barnes & Noble

Big thanks to Tor Nightfire, Netgalley, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TW gore, harm to animals

First, I'll start by saying that gory horror is not really my thing. I had issues with The Haar because of it, though I will say that this book is significantly less gory, but it is something that tends to bring ratings down for me. I like monster horror, I even like people getting eaten, what I do not like heads exploding and guts spilling. Thankfully that was overall a pretty minor part of the book, but it was one that I didn't enjoy.

Moving on to the rest of the story, I liked the vague Appalachian Gothic vibes we got once the plot really got moving. We kind of get a hint that there's something weird about the property Lou is going to survey because we get 'interludes' between some of the chapters, and one of those interludes is a crime podcast that mentions a weird missing person's case, so it's not all that surprising that Lou arrives at the property to find weird symbols hanging around.

I actually don't think Lou made that terrible of a decision going onto the property anyway. As anyone from the Appalachian region can tell you, there are lots of folk beliefs in the more rural areas, so wooden symbols hanging on a gate really isn't that weird. Serial killer associations aside, of course. I really do think Lou did her best to make common sense decisions as much as she could, the situation she finds herself in is just really, really weird. Also, she's totally right about new development suburbia.

As someone who tends to prefer speculative horror, I'm not sure how much I liked the horror here being super concrete. I like it when things are weird (and when there's a lot more plants or body horror involved), so having something concete to run from is a little less interesting to me. However, we do get a speculative element since it's not totally clear what is going on in the woods until closer to the end of the book.

I will say, this book reminded me a bit of Black Sheep , which I also didn't totally love. I do feel like the cult piece kind of came out of nowhere and I'm not really sure it actually added anything to the book. I think it would've made a lot more sense to keep the main bad guy, keep the motive, but have things be more centered around the motive than the cult itself. I actually think the cult gets in the way of the theme of the book a little bit, because it turns the story into a cult book rather than a story about the world taking bites out of you until you either die or start biting back. Because of the way things play out with the cult, I also feel like the author lost some opportunities to really weave the message into the story. The way it is now, I at times felt like I was getting hit over the head with the theme because Keane didn't have any other way to get the message across except for explicitly, and I think the book would've been stronger with some more subtlety.