Words in the Rain

Your friendly neighbourhood bookslinger

[ninja-muse]

If I’ve read a book and you’ve read a book, drop me a line so we can chat!

If I’ve read a book and you want to know about content warnings, representation, particular tropes, etc. drop me a line too!

I’m terrible at initiating contact but I like to chat! 

[ninja-muse]

I survived the library overwhelm! Which was utterly ridiculous. All but one book this month was a library book, when usually I have space for some ARCs or something, but as of two days ago, I have read and returned them all! Which is a relief because I also brought home ARCs that I really wanted to get to but rules are rules: library books come first.

My library reads were a pretty mixed bag, too. One of my highest ratings of the year so far, and I think my very lowest, and then all sorts of stuff in between. If you're interested in SFF and literary criticism, I absolutely recommend Trace Elements for being smart and fascinating and eclectic and thought-provoking. And no matter who you are, you can safely skip Bramah and the Beggar Boy, which was trying to do many, many, many things and never hit the mark for any of them. I applaud the author's ambition and vision.

In between, there were some really fun sci-fi reads (Radiant Sky, The Language of Liars), a slightly less fun but still good sci-fi (Of Monsters and Mainframes), some nicely solid fantasies (The Tapestry of Fate, The Hanging Bones*), a weird western that felt strangely slow (The Great Work), and a handful of titles that deserve more than a shout-out.

First up, to get it out of the way, I read Yesteryear. I don't know how much Tumblr's been going on about it, but it's flying off the shelves and work and definitely buzzy. It's worth it! A fun thriller with some smart things to say about women and gender roles and America and our cultural moment. Natalie is both sympathetic and unlikeable, which is impressive.

Next, we have Nine-Tenths, an indie queer fantasy romance that handled the romance with more depth and nuance than a lot of the trad pub romance I've read, that actually put in the work to build out the world and have genuine fantasy stakes, and that had themes of autonomy and class-based power dynamics and the fallout from colonialism.

And lastly, my travel memoir of the month which I got in just under the wire. I picked up Travels in West Africa at a used bookstore on a whim because hey, single Victorian woman who goes on adventures in Africa? Sign me up! It delivers this in spades, with self-deprecating humour and pluck. There are lovely depictions of scenery, astute observations of people, advice for travellers, and a lot of descriptions of African cultures because ethnography was one of the reasons she was travelling. I enjoyed the snapshot of the time and place and can't imagine there are many other sympathetic depictions of Africans from this era to stand alongside this. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean Kingsley wasn't racist. She makes upsetting assumptions and statements throughout the book, mostly about appearances, intelligence, and motivations, and I hated being slapped upside the head every time she dropped one. Whatever book I pick up for this challenge in June is going to be more modern, that's for sure.

And yes, another book haul. Saga because I didn't have it; Fauna because it was 25¢ and promised me climate apocalypse body horror; and The Blue Castle because it was free and Jo Walton in Trace Elements recommended reading contemporary romances from historical eras to get a sense of how people actually lived and thought. (We're not going to talk about the ebook haul that suggestion caused. I don't expect to read everything I downloaded, but at least I don't have to dig them back up if I change my mind.)

June is going to see me reading cozier fare, starting with my current read, The Geomagician. I have a couple other cozy ARCs on my "read it soon" stack, and I know there's going to be the new KJ Charles romance coming in for me fairly soon. Beyond that, I don't know exactly where my reading will take me, but I do know I plan to start in on the edits for my WIP in earnest.

*two solid books from Tesch means I should keep following her, I think

And now, as usual, without further ado, what I read this month in order of how glad I was to read them…

Trace Elements - Jo Walton and Ada Palmer

Essays about speculative fiction and the nature of reading and stories.

9/10

🇨🇦

library book

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale

Vivian Carter’s Lunar Geographic Survey team is circumnavigating the Moon when they’re attacked by … possibly the Soviets? Again?

8/10

Black and Latino secondary characters

warning: gun and battle violence

library book

The Language of Liars - S.L. Huang

Ro has trained for years to be able to Jump into the mind of a Star Eater, but what if he can’t? What if he shouldn’t?

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: genocide, slavery

library ebook

The Tapestry of Fate - Shannon Chakraborty

Amina Al-Sirafi has been tasked with finding another Transgression: a spindle in the possession of a sorceress on an enchanted island.

7.5/10

largely Middle Eastern cast, Muslim protagonist, major Muslim characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), Muslim author

warning: slavery

library ebook

The Hanging Bones - Elle Tesch

When the mystical Breimar Stag appears in the forest, gamekeeper Katrin enters the hunt in the hopes of winning the death of her overlord—but the stag isn’t the only creature that crossed the veil.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (aroace), Black secondary characters, 🇨🇦

warning: sexual assault and harassment, gore and body horror

library ebook

Travels in West Africa - Mary Kingsley

A British spinster travels solo to West Africa in the 1890s, to study the cultures and collect specimens.

7/10

Black secondary characters

warning: anti-African racism; colonialism; child death; slavery

off my TBR

Nine-Tenths - J.M. Frey

A barista in a holding pattern, a mysterious draconic customer, and a kitchen fire that sparks a romance and some rather uncomfortable questions about how the world is run.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi man, nonbinary), Indigenous, Black, Muslim, and East Asian secondary characters, 🇨🇦, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: classist and colonial thinking, violence, blood, emotional abuse

library book

Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke

Natalie has the husband, kids, farm, staff, merch line, and followers of the perfect tradwife influencer, until one day she wakes up in the 1800s and wonders how she got there.

7.5/10

warning: child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, mental illness, drug abuse, alcoholism

library ebook

The Great Work - Sheldon Costa

Gentle and his nephew set out across frontier Washington to kill a giant salamander that could hold the key to the philosopher’s stone, but of course the path to the stone could never be easy.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, gay), Indigenous secondary character

warning: mentions of domestic and child abuse, misogyny, homophobia, and toxic masculinity; death and grief; gun violence

library book

Of Monsters and Mainframes - Barbara Truelove

Ship’s AI Demeter wakes up to discover all the humans onboard are dead and Dracula might be responsible—and that’s just the beginning.

6.5/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary, sapphic)

warning: violence, murder, death of grandparent, blood, injury

library ebook

Bramah and the Beggar Boy - Renée Sarojini Saklikar

A novel in verse about survival and hope in a corporate climate dystopia.

4/10

Indo-British protagonist, largely brown-skinned cast, 🇨🇦, Indo-Canadian author

warning: incarceration, rape, police brutality, pandemic

library book

Picture Books

Bear for a Day - Corey R. Tabor

What would you do if you were a bear? Ride a motorbike? Visit friends?

DNF 

The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu

After Ellie finds a device designed to keep her mom alive, in the skunkworks that run the universe, she must reckon with family legacy while tracking down the culprit.

Chinese-American protagonist, Chinese-American secondary characters, Chinese-American author

Currently reading

The Geomagician - Jennifer Mandula

When a fossil pterodactyl egg hatches in Mary Anning's hands, it solves all her problems and introduces a slew of new ones.

reading copy

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 11 + 1 Yearly total: 60 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 8 Authors outside the binary: 1 Canadian authors: 4 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 0 DNFs: 1

January February March April

[ninja-muse]

I survived the library overwhelm! Which was utterly ridiculous. All but one book this month was a library book, when usually I have space for some ARCs or something, but as of two days ago, I have read and returned them all! Which is a relief because I also brought home ARCs that I really wanted to get to but rules are rules: library books come first.

My library reads were a pretty mixed bag, too. One of my highest ratings of the year so far, and I think my very lowest, and then all sorts of stuff in between. If you're interested in SFF and literary criticism, I absolutely recommend Trace Elements for being smart and fascinating and eclectic and thought-provoking. And no matter who you are, you can safely skip Bramah and the Beggar Boy, which was trying to do many, many, many things and never hit the mark for any of them. I applaud the author's ambition and vision.

In between, there were some really fun sci-fi reads (Radiant Sky, The Language of Liars), a slightly less fun but still good sci-fi (Of Monsters and Mainframes), some nicely solid fantasies (The Tapestry of Fate, The Hanging Bones*), a weird western that felt strangely slow (The Great Work), and a handful of titles that deserve more than a shout-out.

First up, to get it out of the way, I read Yesteryear. I don't know how much Tumblr's been going on about it, but it's flying off the shelves and work and definitely buzzy. It's worth it! A fun thriller with some smart things to say about women and gender roles and America and our cultural moment. Natalie is both sympathetic and unlikeable, which is impressive.

Next, we have Nine-Tenths, an indie queer fantasy romance that handled the romance with more depth and nuance than a lot of the trad pub romance I've read, that actually put in the work to build out the world and have genuine fantasy stakes, and that had themes of autonomy and class-based power dynamics and the fallout from colonialism.

And lastly, my travel memoir of the month which I got in just under the wire. I picked up Travels in West Africa at a used bookstore on a whim because hey, single Victorian woman who goes on adventures in Africa? Sign me up! It delivers this in spades, with self-deprecating humour and pluck. There are lovely depictions of scenery, astute observations of people, advice for travellers, and a lot of descriptions of African cultures because ethnography was one of the reasons she was travelling. I enjoyed the snapshot of the time and place and can't imagine there are many other sympathetic depictions of Africans from this era to stand alongside this. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean Kingsley wasn't racist. She makes upsetting assumptions and statements throughout the book, mostly about appearances, intelligence, and motivations, and I hated being slapped upside the head every time she dropped one. Whatever book I pick up for this challenge in June is going to be more modern, that's for sure.

And yes, another book haul. Saga because I didn't have it; Fauna because it was 25¢ and promised me climate apocalypse body horror; and The Blue Castle because it was free and Jo Walton in Trace Elements recommended reading contemporary romances from historical eras to get a sense of how people actually lived and thought. (We're not going to talk about the ebook haul that suggestion caused. I don't expect to read everything I downloaded, but at least I don't have to dig them back up if I change my mind.)

June is going to see me reading cozier fare, starting with my current read, The Geomagician. I have a couple other cozy ARCs on my "read it soon" stack, and I know there's going to be the new KJ Charles romance coming in for me fairly soon. Beyond that, I don't know exactly where my reading will take me, but I do know I plan to start in on the edits for my WIP in earnest.

*two solid books from Tesch means I should keep following her, I think

And now, as usual, without further ado, what I read this month in order of how glad I was to read them…

Trace Elements - Jo Walton and Ada Palmer

Essays about speculative fiction and the nature of reading and stories.

9/10

🇨🇦

library book

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale

Vivian Carter’s Lunar Geographic Survey team is circumnavigating the Moon when they’re attacked by … possibly the Soviets? Again?

8/10

Black and Latino secondary characters

warning: gun and battle violence

library book

The Language of Liars - S.L. Huang

Ro has trained for years to be able to Jump into the mind of a Star Eater, but what if he can’t? What if he shouldn’t?

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: genocide, slavery

library ebook

The Tapestry of Fate - Shannon Chakraborty

Amina Al-Sirafi has been tasked with finding another Transgression: a spindle in the possession of a sorceress on an enchanted island.

7.5/10

largely Middle Eastern cast, Muslim protagonist, major Muslim characters, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), Muslim author

warning: slavery

library ebook

The Hanging Bones - Elle Tesch

When the mystical Breimar Stag appears in the forest, gamekeeper Katrin enters the hunt in the hopes of winning the death of her overlord—but the stag isn’t the only creature that crossed the veil.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (aroace), Black secondary characters, 🇨🇦

warning: sexual assault and harassment, gore and body horror

library ebook

Travels in West Africa - Mary Kingsley

A British spinster travels solo to West Africa in the 1890s, to study the cultures and collect specimens.

7/10

Black secondary characters

warning: anti-African racism; colonialism; child death; slavery

off my TBR

Nine-Tenths - J.M. Frey

A barista in a holding pattern, a mysterious draconic customer, and a kitchen fire that sparks a romance and some rather uncomfortable questions about how the world is run.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi man, nonbinary), Indigenous, Black, Muslim, and East Asian secondary characters, 🇨🇦, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: classist and colonial thinking, violence, blood, emotional abuse

library book

Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke

Natalie has the husband, kids, farm, staff, merch line, and followers of the perfect tradwife influencer, until one day she wakes up in the 1800s and wonders how she got there.

7.5/10

warning: child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, mental illness, drug abuse, alcoholism

library ebook

The Great Work - Sheldon Costa

Gentle and his nephew set out across frontier Washington to kill a giant salamander that could hold the key to the philosopher’s stone, but of course the path to the stone could never be easy.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, gay), Indigenous secondary character

warning: mentions of domestic and child abuse, misogyny, homophobia, and toxic masculinity; death and grief; gun violence

library book

Of Monsters and Mainframes - Barbara Truelove

Ship’s AI Demeter wakes up to discover all the humans onboard are dead and Dracula might be responsible—and that’s just the beginning.

6.5/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary, sapphic)

warning: violence, murder, death of grandparent, blood, injury

library ebook

Bramah and the Beggar Boy - Renée Sarojini Saklikar

A novel in verse about survival and hope in a corporate climate dystopia.

4/10

Indo-British protagonist, largely brown-skinned cast, 🇨🇦, Indo-Canadian author

warning: incarceration, rape, police brutality, pandemic

library book

Picture Books

Bear for a Day - Corey R. Tabor

What would you do if you were a bear? Ride a motorbike? Visit friends?

DNF 

The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu

After Ellie finds a device designed to keep her mom alive, in the skunkworks that run the universe, she must reckon with family legacy while tracking down the culprit.

Chinese-American protagonist, Chinese-American secondary characters, Chinese-American author

Currently reading

The Geomagician - Jennifer Mandula

When a fossil pterodactyl egg hatches in Mary Anning's hands, it solves all her problems and introduces a slew of new ones.

reading copy

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 11 + 1 Yearly total: 60 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 8 Authors outside the binary: 1 Canadian authors: 4 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 0 DNFs: 1

January February March April

[ninja-muse]

April did not knock my socks off, reading-wise, but that's okay because I did finally finish the first draft of my WIP! I am relieved and at loose ends and a little worried what my alpha readers are going to say about it. And trying to find my way into my next writing project.

But yeah, I read a lot of books this month that were solidly good but not particularly great? Top of my list is The History of Magic, for being a pretty solid (but imperfect) look at magical practices within human societies from the very first evidence of people up to the present. It's great food for thought and definitely makes the case for belief in magic being an important cultural force even in periods that are all about science or religion. I bought it to use as a reference text for fantasy novels and I'm keeping it for the same.

Bottom of my list is Tungsten John, my DNF for the month, which could have been an interesting travel memoir about adventuring in Canada's north but had uninspired prose, bland historical digressions, and failed to make its characters interesting. If I ever return to the Not-Quite-Urban fantasy it might have some useful things in it, so I'm keeping it, but that might change.

In between we have:

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay, a self-help book that I actually found useful and would recommend

Strange Beasts, a fun historical urban fantasy with shout-outs to Victorian classics

The Ending Writes Itself, a smart bookish locked-room thriller though that's selling it a bit short

Villain, which is the follow-up to one of my favourite superhero novels but didn't quit hit the same high

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale, which felt like Terry Pratchett had done a spin on The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

The Typewriter and the Guillotine, which was interesting and informative but not much else

Outlaw Planet, a sci-fi Western in the same 'verse as the Pandominium duology but which went overlong

An Edge Sharp Enough, which is far enough out right now that all I'll say was I enjoyed it

A Lady for All Seasons, a frothy genderqueer Regency romance and a Good Time; and

Diary of a Pilgrimage, which is Jerome K. Jerome doing his thing as regards, this time, tourism.

None of these are books I wouldn't recommend, but as always, some I liked better than others.

I have obviously given up on ever properly reviewing a book on here again.

You may notice from this month's photo that I acquired more books again. Thankfully, both of these are books I've read, one was free, and one was on sale with a gift card, so basically I didn't pay for that one either. I'm looking forward to cooking out of the cookbook at some point. Probably sometime I'm hosting people because that's when a lot of my experimentation happens.

I'm also in the midst of bookish reading panic/overwhelm. Two books on the go—one I've been hoping my library would get for a couple years now and one for a potential project—one more book checked out, one book waiting at the library, two books in transit, and one of the publisher's reps we deal with at work sent me a semi-solicited reading copy that is a chonk.

But it's fine. It's fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE. I am, after all, reading at least 10 books a month still and will probably have my current two finished by the time I'm next able to hit the library. Needless to say, everything else on my holds list has been mercilessly paused.

Without further ado, here's what I read this month in order of enjoyment…

The History of Magic - Chris Gosden

An archaeological and historical look at magical practices and beliefs throughout human history.

8/10

warning: discussions of colonization and racism and associated thinking, human sacrifice

off my TBR

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay - Jenny Lawson

Encouragements and wisdom for anyone needing to deal with the Struggles, from someone who’s been there.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 author, neurodivergent author, mentally ill author, author with chronic pain

warning: mention of suicidal ideation

reading copy

Strange Beasts - Susan J. Morris

Samantha Harker talks her way into being an investigative agent on a series of grisly murders that might hold to a clue to a family tragedy. Her partner? Helena Moriarty, world-class monster hunter, who’s never kept a partner yet.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Black-French secondary characters

library ebook

The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke

Six writers are summoned to a Scottish island to compete to ghostwrite the ending of a highly anticipated mystery.

7.5/10

major Black and Japanese-American characters, major 🏳️‍🌈 characters (sapphic, gay), 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: character death

library book

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots

Anna/Auditor has helped her boss defeat his heroic nemesis and is now grabbling with what’s next, a number of complicated feelings, and the further costs of her fight against the Draft. Out in May.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi woman), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary), Maori secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, 🇨🇦

reading copy

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale - C.M. Waggoner

Gretsella’s adoptive son becomes the subject of prophecy and makes a total mess of kingship. Luckily for everyone, witches are great at fixing problems.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, lesbian)

library book

The Typewriter and the Guillotine - Mark Braude

In interwar Paris, two lives intersect: an American journalist and a German serial killer.

7/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), 🇨🇦

warning: murder, violence against women, war, refugee camps, antisemitism

reading copy

Outlaw Planet - M.R. Carey

In a world where people are animals and the states are gearing up for civil war, a schoolmarm starts down the path to becoming a gunslinger, and to discovering the truth of her world.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Black secondary character

warning: racist characters, slavery, violence and war

library book

An Edge Sharp Enough - Jesse Q. Sutanto

In a world where Art has all but vanished and technology is on the rise, a girl who wants softness trains to be a warrior, an upper-class girl accepts the aid of a con artist after an attempted kidnapping, and the Vigil leader questions whether the revolution succeeded. Out in 2027.

6/10

largely brown-skinned cast, 🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Indonesian author

warning: violence, gore

reading copy

A Lady for All Seasons - TJ Alexander

Verbena needs a husband and in desperation settles on being the beard for a tailor. But then she meets the fascinating Flora and the equally fascinating William—who are struggling to tell her they’re the same person.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (bi woman, genderfluid), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay)

Warning: mentions of societal homophobia and misogyny

Library ebook

Diary of a Pilgrimage - Jerome K. Jerome

A Victorian humourist recounts a trip to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau.

6.5/10

library ebook

DNF

Tungsten John - John Harris and Vivian Lougheed

A man and his partner repeatedly attempt to reach a particular river in the Northwest Territories.

Black secondary character, 🇨🇦

off my TBR

Currently reading

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale

Vivian Carter’s Lunar Geographic Survey team is circumnavigating the Moon when they’re attacked by … possibly the Soviets? Again?

Black and Latino secondary characters

warning: gun violence

library book

Bramah and the Beggar Boy - Renée Sarojini Saklikar

A novel in verse about a heroic time-travelling demigoddess in a corporate climate-driven dystopia.

Indo-British protagonist, 🇨🇦

library book

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 11 Yearly total: 49 Queer books: 7 Authors of colour: 1 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 2 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 1

January February March

[ninja-muse]

2026 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC  bold - newly added

The Devil's Gambit - Jeri Westerson (historical cozy mystery) - January 1 🏳️‍🌈

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy novella) - January 6 🏳️‍🌈

The Starseekers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - January 6 ⭐️

City of Others - Jared Poon (urban fantasy) - January 13 ⭐️

Nine Goblins - T. Kingfisher (fantasy novella) - January 20

The Typewriter and the Guillotine - Mark Braude (history/true crime) - January 20 📘

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days - Jessie Sylva (cozy fantasy) - January 20

A Crime Through Time - Amelia Blackwell (time travel/cozy mystery) - January 27 📘

The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman (fantasy) - January 27 🏳️‍🌈

Nightshade and Oak - Molly O'Neill (historical fantasy) - February 4

A Forest, Darkly - A.G. Slatter (fantasy) - February 10

The Fourth Princess - Janie Chang (historical fiction) - February 10 🇨🇦📘⭐️

The Astral Library - Kate Quinn (contemporary fantasy) - February 17 📘

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett (historical fantasy) - February 17 🇨🇦

The Fox Hunt - Caitlin Breeze (fantasy) - February 24

Saltswept - Katalina Watt (fantasy) - February 26 🏳️‍🌈

River of Bones and Other Stories - Rebecca Roanhorse (sci-fi/fantasy short stories) - March 3 ⭐️📘

Star Shipped - Cat Sebastian (contemporary romance) - March 3 🏳️‍🌈

The Four Heavens - David Stuart (history) - March 3

Butterfly Effects - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - March 10

Nobody's Baby - Olivia Waite (cozy sci-fi) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

A Lady for All Seasons - TJ Alexander (historical romance) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away - Ciera Burch (middle grade contemporary fantasy) - March 17 ⭐️🏳️‍🌈

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigindale - C.M. Waggoner (cozy fantasy) - March 17

Seasons of Glass and Iron - Amal El-Mohtar (fantasy short stories) - March 24 🇨🇦

Trace Elements - Jo Walton and Ada Palmer (literary criticism) - March 24 🇨🇦

Wolf Worm - T. Kingfisher (horror) - March 24

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay - Jenny Lawson (memoir) - March 31 🏳️‍🌈

A Widow's Charm - Caitlyn Paxson (fantasy romance) - March 31

The Geomagician - Jennifer Mandula (historical fantasy) - March 31

London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe (true crime) - April 7

The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke (mystery) - April 7

The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu (cozy sci-fi) - April 7

What We Are Seeking - Cameron Reed (science fiction) - April 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne (fiction) - April 7 📘

The Shipwright and the Shroundweaver - Rafael Torrubia (romantasy) - April 7 📘

First Mage on the Moon - Cameron Johnson (science fantasy) - April 14

The Many - Sylvain Neuvel (science fiction) - April 21 🇨🇦

The Language of Liars - S.L. Huang (science fiction) - April 21

Thistlemarsh - Moorea Corrigan (cozy fantasy) - April 21

How to Fake It in Society - KJ Charles (historical romance) - April 28 🏳️‍🌈

Being Aro - ed. Madeleine Dyer and Rosiee Thor (young adult contemporary/short stories) - May 5 🏳️‍🌈📘

The Republic of Memory - Mahmud el Sayed (science fiction) - May 5 ⭐️📘

The Hanging Bones - Elle Tesch (YA fantasy) - May 12 🇨🇦

The Devil and Mrs. Gooch - Oliver Darkshire (fantasy) - May 12

The Tapestry of Fate - Shannon Chakraborty (historical fantasy) - May 19 ⭐️

Startup Hell - Caitlin Rozakis (contemporary fantasy) - May 19

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) - May 19 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦

Valet - J.P. Lacrampe (science fiction) - June 2 📘

Inkpot Gods - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 9

An Edge Sharp Enough - Jesse Q. Sutanto (fantasy) - June 9

The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield - Claudia Gray (historical mystery) - June 16

The Scandal of the Summer - Alexandra Vasti (historical romance) - June 23

The Knight Watch - Thomas D. Lee (comic fantasy) - June 23

The Tinder Box - M.R. Carey (fantasy) - June 23

Everybody's Perfect - Jo Walton (fantasy) - June 30 🇨🇦

Heartstopper Vol. 6 - Alice Oseman (YA contemporary romance) - July 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Eye of the Leviathan - M.A. Carrick (fantasy) - July 14

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood - H.G. Parry (historical fantasy) - July 21

The Winter Folk - Jen Julian (horror) - July 21

Harbor of Hungry Ghosts - Eliza Chan (historical fantasy) - July 28 ⭐️

The Salt King - Natasha Pulley (historical fantasy) - August 18 🏳️‍🌈

Daggerbound - T. Kingfisher (cozy romantasy) - August 25 🏳️‍🌈

And Then There Were Bun - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) - August 25 ⭐️

Spooky Rivers - Geo Rutherford (middle grade science) - September 15

Bodies of Magic - Freya Marske (dark academia/fantasy) - September 15 🏳️‍🌈

The Eagle in the Mountain - Caskey Russell (epic fantasy) - September 22 ⭐️

The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing - Marshall J. Moore (comic fantasy) - September 22

The Sorceress of Sky Serpents - Eden Robinson (fantasy) - September 29 🇨🇦⭐️

A Divided Duty - Seanan McGuire (urban fantasy) - September 29

Tales from the Territory - Travis Baldree (cozy fantasy/short stories) - October 1

The Scarlet Ball - Nghi Vo (historical fantasy) - October 6 ⭐️

Victorious - V.E. Schwab (superhero fiction) - October 6

Off the Reservation - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) - October 13 ⭐️

The Unhaunting - Micaiah Johnson (horror) - October 20 ⭐️

The Slantwise Histories and Other Stories - Alix E. Harrow (fantasy short stories) - October 20

Killing Time - Elly Griffith (mystery/time travel) - November 16

[ninja-muse]

April did not knock my socks off, reading-wise, but that's okay because I did finally finish the first draft of my WIP! I am relieved and at loose ends and a little worried what my alpha readers are going to say about it. And trying to find my way into my next writing project.

But yeah, I read a lot of books this month that were solidly good but not particularly great? Top of my list is The History of Magic, for being a pretty solid (but imperfect) look at magical practices within human societies from the very first evidence of people up to the present. It's great food for thought and definitely makes the case for belief in magic being an important cultural force even in periods that are all about science or religion. I bought it to use as a reference text for fantasy novels and I'm keeping it for the same.

Bottom of my list is Tungsten John, my DNF for the month, which could have been an interesting travel memoir about adventuring in Canada's north but had uninspired prose, bland historical digressions, and failed to make its characters interesting. If I ever return to the Not-Quite-Urban fantasy it might have some useful things in it, so I'm keeping it, but that might change.

In between we have:

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay, a self-help book that I actually found useful and would recommend

Strange Beasts, a fun historical urban fantasy with shout-outs to Victorian classics

The Ending Writes Itself, a smart bookish locked-room thriller though that's selling it a bit short

Villain, which is the follow-up to one of my favourite superhero novels but didn't quit hit the same high

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale, which felt like Terry Pratchett had done a spin on The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

The Typewriter and the Guillotine, which was interesting and informative but not much else

Outlaw Planet, a sci-fi Western in the same 'verse as the Pandominium duology but which went overlong

An Edge Sharp Enough, which is far enough out right now that all I'll say was I enjoyed it

A Lady for All Seasons, a frothy genderqueer Regency romance and a Good Time; and

Diary of a Pilgrimage, which is Jerome K. Jerome doing his thing as regards, this time, tourism.

None of these are books I wouldn't recommend, but as always, some I liked better than others.

I have obviously given up on ever properly reviewing a book on here again.

You may notice from this month's photo that I acquired more books again. Thankfully, both of these are books I've read, one was free, and one was on sale with a gift card, so basically I didn't pay for that one either. I'm looking forward to cooking out of the cookbook at some point. Probably sometime I'm hosting people because that's when a lot of my experimentation happens.

I'm also in the midst of bookish reading panic/overwhelm. Two books on the go—one I've been hoping my library would get for a couple years now and one for a potential project—one more book checked out, one book waiting at the library, two books in transit, and one of the publisher's reps we deal with at work sent me a semi-solicited reading copy that is a chonk.

But it's fine. It's fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE. I am, after all, reading at least 10 books a month still and will probably have my current two finished by the time I'm next able to hit the library. Needless to say, everything else on my holds list has been mercilessly paused.

Without further ado, here's what I read this month in order of enjoyment…

The History of Magic - Chris Gosden

An archaeological and historical look at magical practices and beliefs throughout human history.

8/10

warning: discussions of colonization and racism and associated thinking, human sacrifice

off my TBR

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay - Jenny Lawson

Encouragements and wisdom for anyone needing to deal with the Struggles, from someone who’s been there.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 author, neurodivergent author, mentally ill author, author with chronic pain

warning: mention of suicidal ideation

reading copy

Strange Beasts - Susan J. Morris

Samantha Harker talks her way into being an investigative agent on a series of grisly murders that might hold to a clue to a family tragedy. Her partner? Helena Moriarty, world-class monster hunter, who’s never kept a partner yet.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Black-French secondary characters

library ebook

The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke

Six writers are summoned to a Scottish island to compete to ghostwrite the ending of a highly anticipated mystery.

7.5/10

major Black and Japanese-American characters, major 🏳️‍🌈 characters (sapphic, gay), 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: character death

library book

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots

Anna/Auditor has helped her boss defeat his heroic nemesis and is now grabbling with what’s next, a number of complicated feelings, and the further costs of her fight against the Draft. Out in May.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi woman), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary), Maori secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, 🇨🇦

reading copy

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale - C.M. Waggoner

Gretsella’s adoptive son becomes the subject of prophecy and makes a total mess of kingship. Luckily for everyone, witches are great at fixing problems.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, lesbian)

library book

The Typewriter and the Guillotine - Mark Braude

In interwar Paris, two lives intersect: an American journalist and a German serial killer.

7/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), 🇨🇦

warning: murder, violence against women, war, refugee camps, antisemitism

reading copy

Outlaw Planet - M.R. Carey

In a world where people are animals and the states are gearing up for civil war, a schoolmarm starts down the path to becoming a gunslinger, and to discovering the truth of her world.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Black secondary character

warning: racist characters, slavery, violence and war

library book

An Edge Sharp Enough - Jesse Q. Sutanto

In a world where Art has all but vanished and technology is on the rise, a girl who wants softness trains to be a warrior, an upper-class girl accepts the aid of a con artist after an attempted kidnapping, and the Vigil leader questions whether the revolution succeeded. Out in 2027.

6/10

largely brown-skinned cast, 🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Indonesian author

warning: violence, gore

reading copy

A Lady for All Seasons - TJ Alexander

Verbena needs a husband and in desperation settles on being the beard for a tailor. But then she meets the fascinating Flora and the equally fascinating William—who are struggling to tell her they’re the same person.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (bi woman, genderfluid), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay)

Warning: mentions of societal homophobia and misogyny

Library ebook

Diary of a Pilgrimage - Jerome K. Jerome

A Victorian humourist recounts a trip to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau.

6.5/10

library ebook

DNF

Tungsten John - John Harris and Vivian Lougheed

A man and his partner repeatedly attempt to reach a particular river in the Northwest Territories.

Black secondary character, 🇨🇦

off my TBR

Currently reading

Radiant Sky - Alan Smale

Vivian Carter’s Lunar Geographic Survey team is circumnavigating the Moon when they’re attacked by … possibly the Soviets? Again?

Black and Latino secondary characters

warning: gun violence

library book

Bramah and the Beggar Boy - Renée Sarojini Saklikar

A novel in verse about a heroic time-travelling demigoddess in a corporate climate-driven dystopia.

Indo-British protagonist, 🇨🇦

library book

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 11 Yearly total: 49 Queer books: 7 Authors of colour: 1 Books by women: 6 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 2 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 6 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 1

January February March

[ninja-muse]

One of my reading plans for March was to read a bunch of heavier, more serious books to balance out how light and cozy February was. That definitely happened, though there are still a few lighter books in this wrap-up, mostly because I'm still me. And because I compensate for not spending my paycheque at work by compulsively putting everything on hold at the library instead.

And it was a good reading month! A couple exciting books, a lot of good ones, zero duds. I had grand plans to post a review for A Forest, Darkly by A.G. Slatter, but by the time I'd finished reading it, I'd sold out of all our store copies by talking it up to people and so couldn't take the photo. If you like fairy tale worlds and witches, and especially what Naomi Novik does in those spaces, definitely pick it up though. It was great! I need to hit some of Slatter's backlist now.

My other hit of the month was the book that carried over from February—The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne. The elevator pitch is basically "Daisy Jones and the Six meets SNL" and I had so much fun reading it! It's about the 1980s comedy scene, and being a woman in male-dominated spaces, and fame and the things that come with it, and an unsolved death that underpins the "interviews". Compelling, strongly researched, great on character, and strong twists. I hope to be selling out of this one too, once it's released.

Other fiction: finally got to Muse of Nightmares thanks to needing to finish off a Storygraph challenge, unsurprisingly enjoyed it; read Wolf Worm and was delightfully disgusted and creeped out; read the new Incryptid book and the next Lychford novella and naturally enjoyed both. Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian is a strong contemporary romance that deals with mental health and acknowledging needs and traumas, and The Sugared Game by KJ Charles was a fun mystery/romance, as expected. The new Olivia Waite novella was similarly as fun as expected. Jane Austen's juvenilia was delightful and is only at bottom of the list because I realized partway through that I had another, fuller edition of her unpublished work and could've been reading that instead.

And then there's Downbelow Station. I picked this up because I hadn't done a space book in a while and it's supposed to be one of Cherryh's classics. It was good! Essentially it's a space opera military thriller, about a station that's caught between opposing powers who are, at this point, mostly fighting because they fear the other side. Most of the story's from the stationer POVs (good factions and bad), but you also get the military and diplomats, and everyone's trying to get through the conflict intact and in charge. I was describing it to coworkers as "mid-series Expanse but from the '80s". I mostly enjoyed it and am glad I read it, but found some of the politicking and the ways it was brought across a little too complex for my taste.

For non-fiction this month, I picked up two audiobooks. First was The Deviant's War, about queer activists in the US before Stonewall, which I found interesting and sometimes infuriating and pleasingly nuanced. (The author does a good job balancing "they did this really great thing" and "they weren't the most pleasant people", which not all queer histories do.) Lots of deep dives into court records and FBI files and the Lavender Scare. If you're interested in the subject, pick it up.

The second audiobook was this month's travel memoir: Travels with Charley. I haven't liked Steinbeck's fiction, that I've read, but I figured "thoughtful guy in a camper truck with a poodle" would probably be up my alley and I was right. It's an incomplete portrait of America in 1960, with character sketches and anecdotes and thoughts on modernity. It's more open-minded than I'd expected from a middle-aged man, and I was routinely surprised by Steinbeck's grumbles about modern conveniences and the way things are going, because they could be uttered nowadays too. The more things change. (Warning for conversations and language in the Civil Rights-era South, though.)

In other bookish news, I broke my not-buying-things streak by picking up Butterfly Effects and also Bury Me Standing, which has been on my TBR for a while. I found a copy for a good price while unhauling books at a used bookstore. It's on my travel writing TBR specifically, so I might even get to it this year.

Currently reading The History of Magic because I haven't picked up a global history in a while. Picking up Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey sometime this week.

And now, without further ado, what I read this month in order of enjoyment…

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

A journalist assembles an oral history of a hit 1980s sketch comedy show in an attempt to get at why (and how) one of its founding female members died. Out in April.

8/10

Venezuelan-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi woman, sapphic, gay)

warning: drug and alcohol abuse, drug dependency, abusive relationship, AIDS death, misogyny, mention of suicide

reading copy

A Forest, Darkly - A.G. Slatter

Mehrab, contentedly crabby local witch, takes in a teenaged witch on the run just as something dark seems to be rising in the forest.

7.5/10

Middle Eastern protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (achillean)

warning: misogyny, miscarriages, death, pregnancy, kidnapping

library ebook

Muse of Nightmares - Laini Taylor

Hours after Sarai fell from the citadel over Weep and Lazlo returned her to it, Minya urges the teens trapped there to attack the city, but only she wants bloodshed.

7.5/10

largely brown-skinned cast, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, Achillean)

warning: blood, death, violence, suicidal thoughts, suicide, deaths of children, misogyny, PTSD, slavery

library book

Travels with Charley in Search of America - John Steinbeck

In 1960, a man sets off with a camper truck and a poodle, to reconnect with everyday America.

7/10

warning: contains racists and racial slurs

library audiobook

Wolf Worm - T. Kingfisher 

A scientific illustrator in the late 1800s comes across some truly horrifying insects while working in a remote mansion in North Carolina.

7/10

Black secondary character

warning: bugs, parasites, blood and gore, animal death

library ebook

The Deviant’s War - Eric Cervini with Vikas Adam (narrator)

A history of American queer activism in the 1950s and 1960s.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 subject matter

warning: homophobia, transphobia

library audiobook

Butterfly Effects - Seanan McGuire

Sarah is forcibly taken to Johrlar to stand trial among her biological people, with her cousin Arthur brought along as evidence. Naturally, the Price family won’t stand for that, so Antimony, her fiancé, and her grandparents go to bring her home.

7/10

bought/my TBR

The Lights Go Out in Lychford - Paul Cornell

Judith is losing time and memories, the walls between the worlds are softened, someone has come to town seeking wishes, and Autumn and Lizzie are just trying to keep it all together.

7/10

major Black British character

off my TBR

Star Shipped - Cat Sebastian 

Simon and Charlie are sci-fi costars with a public rivalry. When Simon decides to quit the show, Charlie decides they have to become public friends for their reputations. Then Charlie has a family crisis.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi man, gay, sapphic), protagonist with OCD and migraines, Black secondary character

library ebook

The Sugared Game - KJ Charles

Will visits a nightclub and finds himself once again in Kit’s (and Zodiac’s) orbit.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, bi man)

warning: violence, blackmail, homophobia, misogyny

library ebook

Nobody’s Baby - Olivia Waite

Someone leaves an infant with Dorothy’s nephew. Their generation ship has mandatory infertility. Dorothy has a new mystery to solve.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, Achillean)

library ebook

Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh

Earth and the Union are at war, and Pell Station is caught in the middle, with an unwanted influx of refugees and a lot of impossible choices.

7/10

warning: military and police brutality, gun violence, murder, riots

library ebook

A History of England by a Partial and Ignorant Historian - Jane Austen

A selection of Austen’s better known juvenilia.

7/10

library book

Currently reading

The History of Magic - Chris Gosden

An archaeological and historical look at magical practices and beliefs throughout human history.

off my TBR

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 13 Yearly total: 38 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 0 Books by women: 10 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 0 Classics: 2 Off the TBR shelves: 2 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 1 ARCs unhauled: 1 DNFs: 0

January February

[ninja-muse]

2026 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC  bold - newly added

The Devil's Gambit - Jeri Westerson (historical cozy mystery) - January 1 🏳️‍🌈

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy novella) - January 6 🏳️‍🌈

The Starseekers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - January 6 ⭐️

City of Others - Jared Poon (urban fantasy) - January 13 ⭐️

Nine Goblins - T. Kingfisher (fantasy novella) - January 20

The Typewriter and the Guillotine - Mark Braude (history/true crime) - January 20 📘

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days - Jessie Sylva (cozy fantasy) - January 20

A Crime Through Time - Amelia Blackwell (time travel/cozy mystery) - January 27 📘

The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman (fantasy) - January 27 🏳️‍🌈

Nightshade and Oak - Molly O'Neill (historical fantasy) - February 4

A Forest, Darkly - A.G. Slatter (fantasy) - February 10

The Fourth Princess - Janie Chang (historical fiction) - February 10 🇨🇦📘⭐️

The Astral Library - Kate Quinn (contemporary fantasy) - February 17 📘

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett (historical fantasy) - February 17 🇨🇦

The Fox Hunt - Caitlin Breeze (fantasy) - February 24

Saltswept - Katalina Watt (fantasy) - February 26 🏳️‍🌈

River of Bones and Other Stories - Rebecca Roanhorse (sci-fi/fantasy short stories) - March 3 ⭐️📘

Star Shipped - Cat Sebastian (contemporary romance) - March 3 🏳️‍🌈

The Four Heavens - David Stuart (history) - March 3

Butterfly Effects - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - March 10

Nobody's Baby - Olivia Waite (cozy sci-fi) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

A Lady for All Seasons - TJ Alexander (historical romance) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away - Ciera Burch (middle grade contemporary fantasy) - March 17 ⭐️🏳️‍🌈

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigindale - C.M. Waggoner (cozy fantasy) - March 17

Seasons of Glass and Iron - Amal El-Mohtar (fantasy short stories) - March 24 🇨🇦

Trace Elements - Jo Walton and Ada Palmer (literary criticism) - March 24 🇨🇦

Wolf Worm - T. Kingfisher (horror) - March 24

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay - Jenny Lawson (memoir) - March 31 🏳️‍🌈

A Widow's Charm - Caitlyn Paxson (fantasy romance) - March 31

London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe (true crime) - April 7

The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke (mystery) - April 7

The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu (cozy sci-fi) - April 7

What We Are Seeking - Cameron Reed (science fiction) - April 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne (fiction) - April 7 📘

The Shipwright and the Shroundweaver - Rafael Torrubia (romantasy) - April 7

First Mage on the Moon - Cameron Johnson (science fantasy) - April 14

The Many - Sylvain Neuvel (science fiction) - April 21 🇨🇦

The Language of Liars - S.L. Huang (science fiction) - April 21

Thistlemarsh - Moorea Corrigan (cozy fantasy) - April 21

How to Fake It in Society - KJ Charles (historical romance) - April 28 🏳️‍🌈

Being Aro - ed. Madeleine Dyer and Rosiee Thor (young adult contemporary/short stories) - May 5 🏳️‍🌈📘

The Hanging Bones - Elle Tesch (YA fantasy) - May 12 🇨🇦

The Devil and Mrs. Gooch - Oliver Darkshire (fantasy) - May 12

The Tapestry of Fate - Shannon Chakraborty (historical fantasy) - May 19 ⭐️

Startup Hell - Caitlin Rozakis (contemporary fantasy) - May 19

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) - May 19 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦

Valet - J.P. Lacrampe (science fiction) - June 2 📘

Inkpot Gods - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 9

An Edge Sharp Enough - Jesse Q. Sutanto (fantasy) - June 9

The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield - Claudia Gray (historical mystery) - June 16

The Scandal of the Summer - Alexandra Vasti (historical romance) - June 23

The Knight Watch - Thomas D. Lee (comic fantasy) - June 23

The Tinder Box - M.R. Carey (fantasy) - June 23

Everybody's Perfect - Jo Walton (fantasy) - June 30 🇨🇦

Heartstopper Vol. 6 - Alice Oseman (YA contemporary romance) - July 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Eye of the Leviathan - M.A. Carrick (fantasy) - July 14

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood - H.G. Parry (historical fantasy) - July 21

The Winter Folk - Jen Julian (horror) - July 21

Harbor of Hungry Ghosts - Eliza Chan (historical fantasy) - July 28 ⭐️

The Salt King - Natasha Pulley (historical fantasy) - August 18 🏳️‍🌈

Daggerbound - T. Kingfisher (cozy romantasy) - August 25 🏳️‍🌈

And Then There Were Bun - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) - August 25 ⭐️

Spooky Rivers - Geo Rutherford (middle grade science) - September 15

Bodies of Magic - Freya Marske (dark academia/fantasy) - September 15 🏳️‍🌈

The Eagle in the Mountain - Caskey Russell (epic fantasy) - September 22 ⭐️

The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing - Marshall J. Moore (comic fantasy) - September 22

A Divided Duty - Seanan McGuire (urban fantasy) - September 29

Tales from the Territory - Travis Baldree (cozy fantasy/short stories) - October 1

The Scarlet Ball - Nghi Vo (historical fantasy) - October 6 ⭐️

Victorious - V.E. Schwab (superhero fiction) - October 6

Off the Reservation - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) - October 13 ⭐️

The Unhaunting - Micaiah Johnson (horror) - October 20 ⭐️

The Slantwise Histories and Other Stories - Alix E. Harrow (fantasy short stories) - October 20

Killing Time - Elly Griffith (mystery/time travel) - November 16

[ninja-muse]

One of my reading plans for March was to read a bunch of heavier, more serious books to balance out how light and cozy February was. That definitely happened, though there are still a few lighter books in this wrap-up, mostly because I'm still me. And because I compensate for not spending my paycheque at work by compulsively putting everything on hold at the library instead.

And it was a good reading month! A couple exciting books, a lot of good ones, zero duds. I had grand plans to post a review for A Forest, Darkly by A.G. Slatter, but by the time I'd finished reading it, I'd sold out of all our store copies by talking it up to people and so couldn't take the photo. If you like fairy tale worlds and witches, and especially what Naomi Novik does in those spaces, definitely pick it up though. It was great! I need to hit some of Slatter's backlist now.

My other hit of the month was the book that carried over from February—The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne. The elevator pitch is basically "Daisy Jones and the Six meets SNL" and I had so much fun reading it! It's about the 1980s comedy scene, and being a woman in male-dominated spaces, and fame and the things that come with it, and an unsolved death that underpins the "interviews". Compelling, strongly researched, great on character, and strong twists. I hope to be selling out of this one too, once it's released.

Other fiction: finally got to Muse of Nightmares thanks to needing to finish off a Storygraph challenge, unsurprisingly enjoyed it; read Wolf Worm and was delightfully disgusted and creeped out; read the new Incryptid book and the next Lychford novella and naturally enjoyed both. Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian is a strong contemporary romance that deals with mental health and acknowledging needs and traumas, and The Sugared Game by KJ Charles was a fun mystery/romance, as expected. The new Olivia Waite novella was similarly as fun as expected. Jane Austen's juvenilia was delightful and is only at bottom of the list because I realized partway through that I had another, fuller edition of her unpublished work and could've been reading that instead.

And then there's Downbelow Station. I picked this up because I hadn't done a space book in a while and it's supposed to be one of Cherryh's classics. It was good! Essentially it's a space opera military thriller, about a station that's caught between opposing powers who are, at this point, mostly fighting because they fear the other side. Most of the story's from the stationer POVs (good factions and bad), but you also get the military and diplomats, and everyone's trying to get through the conflict intact and in charge. I was describing it to coworkers as "mid-series Expanse but from the '80s". I mostly enjoyed it and am glad I read it, but found some of the politicking and the ways it was brought across a little too complex for my taste.

For non-fiction this month, I picked up two audiobooks. First was The Deviant's War, about queer activists in the US before Stonewall, which I found interesting and sometimes infuriating and pleasingly nuanced. (The author does a good job balancing "they did this really great thing" and "they weren't the most pleasant people", which not all queer histories do.) Lots of deep dives into court records and FBI files and the Lavender Scare. If you're interested in the subject, pick it up.

The second audiobook was this month's travel memoir: Travels with Charley. I haven't liked Steinbeck's fiction, that I've read, but I figured "thoughtful guy in a camper truck with a poodle" would probably be up my alley and I was right. It's an incomplete portrait of America in 1960, with character sketches and anecdotes and thoughts on modernity. It's more open-minded than I'd expected from a middle-aged man, and I was routinely surprised by Steinbeck's grumbles about modern conveniences and the way things are going, because they could be uttered nowadays too. The more things change. (Warning for conversations and language in the Civil Rights-era South, though.)

In other bookish news, I broke my not-buying-things streak by picking up Butterfly Effects and also Bury Me Standing, which has been on my TBR for a while. I found a copy for a good price while unhauling books at a used bookstore. It's on my travel writing TBR specifically, so I might even get to it this year.

Currently reading The History of Magic because I haven't picked up a global history in a while. Picking up Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey sometime this week.

And now, without further ado, what I read this month in order of enjoyment…

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

A journalist assembles an oral history of a hit 1980s sketch comedy show in an attempt to get at why (and how) one of its founding female members died. Out in April.

8/10

Venezuelan-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi woman, sapphic, gay)

warning: drug and alcohol abuse, drug dependency, abusive relationship, AIDS death, misogyny, mention of suicide

reading copy

A Forest, Darkly - A.G. Slatter

Mehrab, contentedly crabby local witch, takes in a teenaged witch on the run just as something dark seems to be rising in the forest.

7.5/10

Middle Eastern protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (achillean)

warning: misogyny, miscarriages, death, pregnancy, kidnapping

library ebook

Muse of Nightmares - Laini Taylor

Hours after Sarai fell from the citadel over Weep and Lazlo returned her to it, Minya urges the teens trapped there to attack the city, but only she wants bloodshed.

7.5/10

largely brown-skinned cast, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, Achillean)

warning: blood, death, violence, suicidal thoughts, suicide, deaths of children, misogyny, PTSD, slavery

library book

Travels with Charley in Search of America - John Steinbeck

In 1960, a man sets off with a camper truck and a poodle, to reconnect with everyday America.

7/10

warning: contains racists and racial slurs

library audiobook

Wolf Worm - T. Kingfisher 

A scientific illustrator in the late 1800s comes across some truly horrifying insects while working in a remote mansion in North Carolina.

7/10

Black secondary character

warning: bugs, parasites, blood and gore, animal death

library ebook

The Deviant’s War - Eric Cervini with Vikas Adam (narrator)

A history of American queer activism in the 1950s and 1960s.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 subject matter

warning: homophobia, transphobia

library audiobook

Butterfly Effects - Seanan McGuire

Sarah is forcibly taken to Johrlar to stand trial among her biological people, with her cousin Arthur brought along as evidence. Naturally, the Price family won’t stand for that, so Antimony, her fiancé, and her grandparents go to bring her home.

7/10

bought/my TBR

The Lights Go Out in Lychford - Paul Cornell

Judith is losing time and memories, the walls between the worlds are softened, someone has come to town seeking wishes, and Autumn and Lizzie are just trying to keep it all together.

7/10

major Black British character

off my TBR

Star Shipped - Cat Sebastian 

Simon and Charlie are sci-fi costars with a public rivalry. When Simon decides to quit the show, Charlie decides they have to become public friends for their reputations. Then Charlie has a family crisis.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi man, gay, sapphic), protagonist with OCD and migraines, Black secondary character

library ebook

The Sugared Game - KJ Charles

Will visits a nightclub and finds himself once again in Kit’s (and Zodiac’s) orbit.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, bi man)

warning: violence, blackmail, homophobia, misogyny

library ebook

Nobody’s Baby - Olivia Waite

Someone leaves an infant with Dorothy’s nephew. Their generation ship has mandatory infertility. Dorothy has a new mystery to solve.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, Achillean)

library ebook

Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh

Earth and the Union are at war, and Pell Station is caught in the middle, with an unwanted influx of refugees and a lot of impossible choices.

7/10

warning: military and police brutality, gun violence, murder, riots

library ebook

A History of England by a Partial and Ignorant Historian - Jane Austen

A selection of Austen’s better known juvenilia.

7/10

library book

Currently reading

The History of Magic - Chris Gosden

An archaeological and historical look at magical practices and beliefs throughout human history.

off my TBR

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 13 Yearly total: 38 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 0 Books by women: 10 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 0 Classics: 2 Off the TBR shelves: 2 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 1 ARCs unhauled: 1 DNFs: 0

January February

[ninja-muse]

This month I proved that it's possible to scare even myself with my reading speed. I'm about done with the short, light reads, at least for the moment, though. I've picked up a couple slower, darker reads to bridge the gap to March, and I'm now so far ahead on my yearly reading goal that I have a little bit of breathing room. That's accidental, by the way, not on purpose.

Once again, I didn't manage to write a dedicated review. My standout read, though, was Murderland, which was intense—a tonne of facts, a nearly day-by-day timeline of evil at some points, rage at the callousness and greed of heavy industry, and it never lets you look away from a single gory detail. (Seriously, if you can't handle knowing everything Bundy did to his victims, this is not the book for you.) It's not completely a fresh premise and certainly not a complete answer to why serial killers happen, but it's well-argued and thought-provoking and it hit my bar of greatness, which is that it made me feel things.

My least favourite read was, sadly, The Rose Field. I found it a little too padded, with scenes or conversations that could've been tighter if not cut completely, and I thought that as a result, his thesis got a little muddied while also, oddly, also being a little heavy-handed. I wish he'd gotten more editing or had taken a little more time to work on it, because it could have been good enough to save the trilogy for me. As it is, it didn't, and I'm wondering now how His Dark Materials would hold up to adult eyes. Whether it's him, or adult me, or really just the editing problem I suspect. Very disappointing, though.

The rest of my reads were various sorts of good to middling. City of Others is a fresh new urban fantasy, especially if you like the Peter Grant books. Nine Goblins and Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter were both charming—Goblins in a very Pratchett sort of way and Agnes is a modern cozy fantasy way. I got Howl's Moving Castle vibes at a few points, and of course there were cats. Honeyeater and Nightshade & Oak were both solid and what I expected of their authors, and to be honest, so were Crime Rangoon and Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding, though the latter also might have benefited from a structural editor. Parts felt rushed and I had to double-check a scene because an important plot point flew under the radar the first time. Still going to continue the series if I spot it in the wild, but I won't be seeking it out.

Other reads? River of Bones is a collection of excellent short stories and a new novella by Rebecca Roanhorse. Penric's Fox is a Bujold novella. (I will never not be entertained by Bujold.) Dead & Breakfast was fun and drew a smart parallel between vampirism and the acceptance of queer folk, but it edged into being too silly for me, unfortunately. I won't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who thinks "cozy mystery with gay vampires" sounds like a good time, but I won't be picking up the sequel.

And then we have my travel memoir of the month: Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness! Which is only partly Ibn Fadlan and filled out with other medieval travellers from the Islamic world, all outlining the trips they took north or the strange people they heard about who lived up there. Some of it was recognizable—fur traders, very pale blond people, dog sleds, skis, saunas, court politics, Viking ship funerals—and some of it was typical medieval fantasy—notably, the short demonic people with giant hairy ears who lived behind Alexander the Great's northern wall and were prophesied to start the apocalypse. Typical for the period, in other words! I loved seeing how far north Islam (and Judaism) had spread by even the tenth century, and how the trading networks helped the writers write knowledgeably about places they'd never been to.

In other bookish news, there isn't much. We survived inventory at work for another year, I guess? Most of February was spent prepping to make that go well. My parents came down for a few days and brought some old books of my grandparents, which I'm trying to think of a good place for. I think some reorganization might be in order so I can get them on a bookcase rather than in them.

I have not seen "Wuthering Heights". I have no plans to.

Next month is probably going to see me reading on the darker, deeper end of things still, in an attempt to balance out three cozy mysteries, two cozy fantasies, and three lighter fantasies. I'll be leaving my thoughts on Downbelow Station and The Midnight Show for my next wrap-up because this is already getting long. (There's also an author event I'm excited for.)

And speaking of length, at last, here is everything I read in order of how much I enjoyed them…

Murderland - Caroline Fraser

A portrait of the Pacific Northwest in the mid-twentieth century that draws together deadly infrastructure, deadly geography, deadly industry, and deadly people.

8.5/10

warning: graphic violence, graphic murder, graphic sexual assault, graphic health problems, deaths of children

library ebook

City of Others - Jared Poon

Ben Toh and his team of magical civil servants are faced with an apartment building that's losing touch with reality.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (achillean), cast largely of Chinese ethnicity, Middle Eastern secondary characters, Muslim secondary characters, author of Chinese ethnicity, 🏳️‍🌈 author

library ebook

Nine Goblins - T. Kingfisher

They’re the sloppiest unit in the goblin army. They’re magically stranded behind enemy lines. The way home is fraught with danger and their sergeant is so, so tired.

7/10

warning: dead bodies, deaths of children and animals

library book

Honeyeater - Kathleen Jennings

Somewhat aimless Charlie is cleaning out his aunt’s house when Grace, ill and without memories, stumbles through the gate. His attempts to help her lead them to question his past, his present, the perfection of his suburb, and the afterlife.

7.5/10

warning: deaths of animals, racist character

library book

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett

Desperate for a new shelter space after a magician duel, Agnes rents a suspiciously cheap shopfront, only to learn the Witch King himself is running an illegal magic shop in the basement.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (achillean, aromantic), Jewish secondary character, 🇨🇦

reading copy

Nightshade and Oak - Molly O’Neill 

When a miscast spell turns her human and separates a soul from its body, Mallt and the caster grudgingly travel together to the Afterworld to fix their problems, but that's easier said than done.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

library ebook

Penric’s Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold

Penric is visiting friends when the body of a fellow sorcerer is discovered. She had no enemies and her demon is missing.

7/10

warning: some cruelty to animals, and off-screen animal death

library audiobook

Ibn Fadlan and the Lands of Darkness - Various

Writers of the medieval Islamic world visit the strange lands and cultures of northern and eastern Europe.

7.5/10

Muslim Arab authors, one Jewish author

warning: slavery, rape, human sacrifice

off my TBR

River of Bones and Other Stories - Rebecca Roanhorse

Collected fantasy short stories. Out in March.

7/10

Black and Indigenous protagonists, 🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (gay, lesbian), Latin secondary characters, Black-Pueblo author

warning: racists, violence, gun violence

reading copy

Crime Rangoon - Vivien Chien

When Lena’s favourite mystery writer dies in the middle of a signing, Lena’s detective boyfriend finally leans on her for help. After all, she’s read the book the murder is mirroring.

7/10

largely Chinese- and Taiwanese-American cast, Taiwanese-American author

library ebook

Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding - Emmeline Duncan

Bailey’s helping a friend throw a dream wedding when a fellow bridesmaid is killed. The police suspect Bailey’s best friend. Impossible!

6.5/10

Indigenous secondary character, Mexican-American secondary character

warning: mentions of drug use and sales

borrowed from work

Dead & Breakfast - Kat Hillis and Rosiee Thor

Vampires Arthur and Sal are trying to get their B&B off the ground in a town that distrusts paranormals. The discovery of the mayor dead in their begonias, with fang marks, isn’t helping.

5.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Jewish protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (bi man), Black secondary character

warning: severe injury to teenager

library book

The Rose Field - Philip Pullman

Lyra and Pan are independently seeking a building in Central Asia that has something to do with roses, while Magisterium forces are seeking it for darker purposes.

5/10

warning: physical assault

library book

Currently reading

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

A journalist assembles an oral history of a hit 1980s sketch comedy show in an attempt to get at why (and how) one of its founding female members died. Out in April.

Venezuelan-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi woman, gay man)

warning: misogyny, possible suicide, drugs and alcohol

reading copy

Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh

Earth and the Union are at war, and Pell Station is caught in the middle, with an unwanted influx of refugees.

warning: gun violence, police brutality

library ebook

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 13 Yearly total: 25 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 4 Books by women: 9.5 Authors outside the binary: 0.5 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 0 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 2 DNFs: 0

January

[ninja-muse]

2026 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC  bold - newly added

The Devil's Gambit - Jeri Westerson (historical cozy mystery) - January 1 🏳️‍🌈

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy novella) - January 6 🏳️‍🌈

The Starseekers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - January 6 ⭐️

City of Others - Jared Poon (urban fantasy) - January 13 ⭐️

Nine Goblins - T. Kingfisher (fantasy novella) - January 20

The Typewriter and the Guillotine - Mark Braude (history/true crime) - January 20 📘

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days - Jessie Sylva (cozy fantasy) - January 20

A Crime Through Time - Amelia Blackwell (time travel/cozy mystery) - January 27 📘

The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman (fantasy) - January 27 🏳️‍🌈

Nightshade and Oak - Molly O'Neill (historical fantasy) - February 4

A Forest, Darkly - A.G. Slatter (fantasy) - February 10

The Fourth Princess - Janie Chang (historical fiction) - February 10 🇨🇦📘⭐️

The Astral Library - Kate Quinn (contemporary fantasy) - February 17 📘

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett (historical fantasy) - February 17 🇨🇦

The Fox Hunt - Caitlin Breeze (fantasy) - February 24

Saltswept - Katalina Watt (fantasy) - February 26 🏳️‍🌈

River of Bones and Other Stories - Rebecca Roanhorse (sci-fi/fantasy short stories) - March 3 ⭐️📘

Star Shipped - Cat Sebastian (contemporary romance) - March 3 🏳️‍🌈

Butterfly Effects - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - March 10

Nobody's Baby - Olivia Waite (cozy sci-fi) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

A Lady for All Seasons - TJ Alexander (historical romance) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away - Ciera Burch (middle grade contemporary fantasy) - March 17 ⭐️🏳️‍🌈

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigindale - C.M. Waggoner (cozy fantasy) - March 17

Seasons of Glass and Iron - Amal El-Mohtar (fantasy short stories) - March 24 🇨🇦

Trace Elements - Jo Walton and Ada Palmer (literary criticism) - March 24 🇨🇦

Wolf Worm - T. Kingfisher (horror) - March 24

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay - Jenny Lawson (memoir) - March 31 🏳️‍🌈

London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe (true crime) - April 7

The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke (mystery) - April 7

The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu (cozy sci-fi) - April 7

What We Are Seeking - Cameron Reed (science fiction) - April 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne (fiction) - April 7 📘

The Shipwright and the Shroundweaver - Rafael Torrubia (romantasy) - April 7

First Mage on the Moon - Cameron Johnson (science fantasy) - April 14

The Many - Sylvain Neuvel (science fiction) - April 21 🇨🇦

The Language of Liars - S.L. Huang (science fiction) - April 21

Thistlemarsh - Moorea Corrigan (cozy fantasy) - April 21

How to Fake It in Society - KJ Charles (historical romance) - April 28 🏳️‍🌈

Being Aro - ed. Madeleine Dyer and Rosiee Thor (young adult contemporary/short stories) - May 5 🏳️‍🌈📘

The Hanging Bones - Elle Tesch (YA fantasy) - May 12 🇨🇦

The Devil and Mrs. Gooch - Oliver Darkshire (fantasy) - May 12

The Tapestry of Fate - Shannon Chakraborty (historical fantasy) - May 19 ⭐️

Startup Hell - Caitlin Rozakis (contemporary fantasy) - May 19

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) - May 19 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦

Valet - J.P. Lacrampe (science fiction) - June 2 📘

Inkpot Gods - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 9

An Edge Sharp Enough - Jesse Q. Sutanto (fantasy) - June 9

The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield - Claudia Gray (historical mystery) - June 16

The Scandal of the Summer - Alexandra Vasti (historical romance) - June 23

The Knight Watch - Thomas D. Lee (comic fantasy) - June 23

The Tinder Box - M.R. Carey (fantasy) - June 23

Everybody's Perfect - Jo Walton (fantasy) - June 30 🇨🇦

Heartstopper Vol. 6 - Alice Oseman (YA contemporary romance) - July 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Eye of the Leviathan - M.A. Carrick (fantasy) - July 14

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood - H.G. Parry (historical fantasy) - July 21

The Winter Folk - Jen Julian (horror) - July 21

Harbor of Hungry Ghosts - Eliza Chan (historical fantasy) - July 28 ⭐️

The Salt King - Natasha Pulley (historical fantasy) - August 18 🏳️‍🌈

Daggerbound - T. Kingfisher (cozy romantasy) - August 25 🏳️‍🌈

And Then There Were Bun - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) - August 25 ⭐️

Spooky Rivers - Geo Rutherford (middle grade science) - September 15

Bodies of Magic - Freya Marske (dark academia/fantasy) - September 15 🏳️‍🌈

The Eagle in the Mountain - Caskey Russell (epic fantasy) - September 22 ⭐️

The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing - Marshall J. Moore (comic fantasy) - September 22

A Divided Duty - Seanan McGuire (urban fantasy) - September 29

Tales from the Territory - Travis Baldree (cozy fantasy/short stories) - October 1

The Scarlet Ball - Nghi Vo (historical fantasy) - October 6 ⭐️

Victorious - V.E. Schwab (superhero fiction) - October 6

The Unhaunting - Micaiah Johnson (horror) - October 20 ⭐️

Killing Time - Elly Griffith (mystery/time travel) - November 16

[ninja-muse]

This month I proved that it's possible to scare even myself with my reading speed. I'm about done with the short, light reads, at least for the moment, though. I've picked up a couple slower, darker reads to bridge the gap to March, and I'm now so far ahead on my yearly reading goal that I have a little bit of breathing room. That's accidental, by the way, not on purpose.

Once again, I didn't manage to write a dedicated review. My standout read, though, was Murderland, which was intense—a tonne of facts, a nearly day-by-day timeline of evil at some points, rage at the callousness and greed of heavy industry, and it never lets you look away from a single gory detail. (Seriously, if you can't handle knowing everything Bundy did to his victims, this is not the book for you.) It's not completely a fresh premise and certainly not a complete answer to why serial killers happen, but it's well-argued and thought-provoking and it hit my bar of greatness, which is that it made me feel things.

My least favourite read was, sadly, The Rose Field. I found it a little too padded, with scenes or conversations that could've been tighter if not cut completely, and I thought that as a result, his thesis got a little muddied while also, oddly, also being a little heavy-handed. I wish he'd gotten more editing or had taken a little more time to work on it, because it could have been good enough to save the trilogy for me. As it is, it didn't, and I'm wondering now how His Dark Materials would hold up to adult eyes. Whether it's him, or adult me, or really just the editing problem I suspect. Very disappointing, though.

The rest of my reads were various sorts of good to middling. City of Others is a fresh new urban fantasy, especially if you like the Peter Grant books. Nine Goblins and Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter were both charming—Goblins in a very Pratchett sort of way and Agnes is a modern cozy fantasy way. I got Howl's Moving Castle vibes at a few points, and of course there were cats. Honeyeater and Nightshade & Oak were both solid and what I expected of their authors, and to be honest, so were Crime Rangoon and Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding, though the latter also might have benefited from a structural editor. Parts felt rushed and I had to double-check a scene because an important plot point flew under the radar the first time. Still going to continue the series if I spot it in the wild, but I won't be seeking it out.

Other reads? River of Bones is a collection of excellent short stories and a new novella by Rebecca Roanhorse. Penric's Fox is a Bujold novella. (I will never not be entertained by Bujold.) Dead & Breakfast was fun and drew a smart parallel between vampirism and the acceptance of queer folk, but it edged into being too silly for me, unfortunately. I won't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who thinks "cozy mystery with gay vampires" sounds like a good time, but I won't be picking up the sequel.

And then we have my travel memoir of the month: Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness! Which is only partly Ibn Fadlan and filled out with other medieval travellers from the Islamic world, all outlining the trips they took north or the strange people they heard about who lived up there. Some of it was recognizable—fur traders, very pale blond people, dog sleds, skis, saunas, court politics, Viking ship funerals—and some of it was typical medieval fantasy—notably, the short demonic people with giant hairy ears who lived behind Alexander the Great's northern wall and were prophesied to start the apocalypse. Typical for the period, in other words! I loved seeing how far north Islam (and Judaism) had spread by even the tenth century, and how the trading networks helped the writers write knowledgeably about places they'd never been to.

In other bookish news, there isn't much. We survived inventory at work for another year, I guess? Most of February was spent prepping to make that go well. My parents came down for a few days and brought some old books of my grandparents, which I'm trying to think of a good place for. I think some reorganization might be in order so I can get them on a bookcase rather than in them.

I have not seen "Wuthering Heights". I have no plans to.

Next month is probably going to see me reading on the darker, deeper end of things still, in an attempt to balance out three cozy mysteries, two cozy fantasies, and three lighter fantasies. I'll be leaving my thoughts on Downbelow Station and The Midnight Show for my next wrap-up because this is already getting long. (There's also an author event I'm excited for.)

And speaking of length, at last, here is everything I read in order of how much I enjoyed them…

Murderland - Caroline Fraser

A portrait of the Pacific Northwest in the mid-twentieth century that draws together deadly infrastructure, deadly geography, deadly industry, and deadly people.

8.5/10

warning: graphic violence, graphic murder, graphic sexual assault, graphic health problems, deaths of children

library ebook

City of Others - Jared Poon

Ben Toh and his team of magical civil servants are faced with an apartment building that's losing touch with reality.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (achillean), cast largely of Chinese ethnicity, Middle Eastern secondary characters, Muslim secondary characters, author of Chinese ethnicity, 🏳️‍🌈 author

library ebook

Nine Goblins - T. Kingfisher

They’re the sloppiest unit in the goblin army. They’re magically stranded behind enemy lines. The way home is fraught with danger and their sergeant is so, so tired.

7/10

warning: dead bodies, deaths of children and animals

library book

Honeyeater - Kathleen Jennings

Somewhat aimless Charlie is cleaning out his aunt’s house when Grace, ill and without memories, stumbles through the gate. His attempts to help her lead them to question his past, his present, the perfection of his suburb, and the afterlife.

7.5/10

warning: deaths of animals, racist character

library book

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett

Desperate for a new shelter space after a magician duel, Agnes rents a suspiciously cheap shopfront, only to learn the Witch King himself is running an illegal magic shop in the basement.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (achillean, aromantic), Jewish secondary character, 🇨🇦

reading copy

Nightshade and Oak - Molly O’Neill 

When a miscast spell turns her human and separates a soul from its body, Mallt and the caster grudgingly travel together to the Afterworld to fix their problems, but that's easier said than done.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

library ebook

Penric’s Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold

Penric is visiting friends when the body of a fellow sorcerer is discovered. She had no enemies and her demon is missing.

7/10

warning: some cruelty to animals, and off-screen animal death

library audiobook

Ibn Fadlan and the Lands of Darkness - Various

Writers of the medieval Islamic world visit the strange lands and cultures of northern and eastern Europe.

7.5/10

Muslim Arab authors, one Jewish author

warning: slavery, rape, human sacrifice

off my TBR

River of Bones and Other Stories - Rebecca Roanhorse

Collected fantasy short stories. Out in March.

7/10

Black and Indigenous protagonists, 🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (gay, lesbian), Latin secondary characters, Black-Pueblo author

warning: racists, violence, gun violence

reading copy

Crime Rangoon - Vivien Chien

When Lena’s favourite mystery writer dies in the middle of a signing, Lena’s detective boyfriend finally leans on her for help. After all, she’s read the book the murder is mirroring.

7/10

largely Chinese- and Taiwanese-American cast, Taiwanese-American author

library ebook

Mayhem at a Halloween Wedding - Emmeline Duncan

Bailey’s helping a friend throw a dream wedding when a fellow bridesmaid is killed. The police suspect Bailey’s best friend. Impossible!

6.5/10

Indigenous secondary character, Mexican-American secondary character

warning: mentions of drug use and sales

borrowed from work

Dead & Breakfast - Kat Hillis and Rosiee Thor

Vampires Arthur and Sal are trying to get their B&B off the ground in a town that distrusts paranormals. The discovery of the mayor dead in their begonias, with fang marks, isn’t helping.

5.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Jewish protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (bi man), Black secondary character

warning: severe injury to teenager

library book

The Rose Field - Philip Pullman

Lyra and Pan are independently seeking a building in Central Asia that has something to do with roses, while Magisterium forces are seeking it for darker purposes.

5/10

warning: physical assault

library book

Currently reading

The Midnight Show - Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

A journalist assembles an oral history of a hit 1980s sketch comedy show in an attempt to get at why (and how) one of its founding female members died. Out in April.

Venezuelan-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi woman, gay man)

warning: misogyny, possible suicide, drugs and alcohol

reading copy

Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh

Earth and the Union are at war, and Pell Station is caught in the middle, with an unwanted influx of refugees.

warning: gun violence, police brutality

library ebook

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 13 Yearly total: 25 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 4 Books by women: 9.5 Authors outside the binary: 0.5 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 0 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 2 DNFs: 0

January

[ninja-muse]

2026 Release TBR

🏳️‍🌈 - queer MC     🇨🇦 - Canadian author    ⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC  bold - newly added

The Devil's Gambit - Jeri Westerson (historical cozy mystery) - January 1 🏳️‍🌈

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy novella) - January 6 🏳️‍🌈

The Starseekers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - January 6 ⭐️

City of Others - Jared Poon (urban fantasy) - January 13 ⭐️

Nine Goblins - T. Kingfisher (fantasy novella) - January 20

The Typewriter and the Guillotine - Mark Braude (history/true crime) - January 20 📘

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days - Jessie Sylva (cozy fantasy) - January 20

A Crime Through Time - Amelia Blackwell (time travel/cozy mystery) - January 27 📘

The Wolf and His King - Finn Longman (fantasy) - January 27 🏳️‍🌈

Nightshade and Oak - Molly O'Neill (historical fantasy) - February 4

A Forest, Darkly - A.G. Slatter (fantasy) - February 10

The Fourth Princess - Janie Chang (historical fiction) - February 10 🇨🇦📘⭐️

The Astral Library - Kate Quinn (contemporary fantasy) - February 17 📘

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett (historical fantasy) - February 17 🇨🇦

The Fox Hunt - Caitlin Breeze (fantasy) - February 24

Saltswept - Katalina Watt (fantasy) - February 26 🏳️‍🌈

River of Bones and Other Stories - Rebecca Roanhorse (sci-fi/fantasy short stories) - March 3 ⭐️📘

Star Shipped - Cat Sebastian (contemporary romance) - March 3 🏳️‍🌈

Butterfly Effects - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - March 10

Nobody's Baby - Olivia Waite (cozy sci-fi) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

A Lady for All Seasons - TJ Alexander (historical romance) - March 10 🏳️‍🌈

Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away - Ciera Burch (middle grade contemporary fantasy) - March 17 ⭐️🏳️‍🌈

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigindale - C.M. Waggoner (cozy fantasy) - March 17

Seasons of Glass and Iron - Amal El-Mohtar (fantasy short stories) - March 24 🇨🇦

Trace Elements - Jo Walton and Ada Palmer (literary criticism) - March 24 🇨🇦

Wolf Worm - T. Kingfisher (horror) - March 24

How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay - Jenny Lawson (memoir) - March 31 🏳️‍🌈

London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe (true crime) - April 7

The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke (mystery) - April 7

The Subtle Art of Folding Space - John Chu (cozy sci-fi) - April 7

What We Are Seeking - Cameron Reed (science fiction) - April 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Shipwright and the Shroundweaver - Rafael Torrubia (romantasy) - April 7

First Mage on the Moon - Cameron Johnson (science fantasy) - April 14

The Many - Sylvain Neuvel (science fiction) - April 21 🇨🇦

The Language of Liars - S.L. Huang (science fiction) - April 21

Thistlemarsh - Moorea Corrigan (cozy fantasy) - April 21

How to Fake It in Society - KJ Charles (historical romance) - April 28 🏳️‍🌈

The Hanging Bones - Elle Tesch (YA fantasy) - May 12 🇨🇦

The Devil and Mrs. Gooch - Oliver Darkshire (fantasy) - May 12

The Tapestry of Fate - Shannon Chakraborty (historical fantasy) - May 19 ⭐️

Startup Hell - Caitlin Rozakis (contemporary fantasy) - May 19

Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) - May 19 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦

Valet - J.P. Lacrampe (science fiction) - June 2

Inkpot Gods - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 9

An Edge Sharp Enough - Jesse Q. Sutanto (fantasy) - June 9

The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield - Claudia Gray (historical mystery) - June 16

The Scandal of the Summer - Alexandra Vasti (historical romance) - June 23

The Tinder Box - M.R. Carey (fantasy) - June 23

Everybody's Perfect - Jo Walton (fantasy) - June 30 🇨🇦

Heartstopper Vol. 6 - Alice Oseman (YA contemporary romance) - July 7 🏳️‍🌈

The Eye of the Leviathan - M.A. Carrick (fantasy) - July 14

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood - H.G. Parry (historical fantasy) - July 21

The Winter Folk - Jen Julian (horror) - July 21

Harbor of Hungry Ghosts - Eliza Chan (historical fantasy) - July 28 ⭐️

The Salt King - Natasha Pulley (historical fantasy) - August 18 🏳️‍🌈

Daggerbound - T. Kingfisher (cozy romantasy) - August 25 🏳️‍🌈

Spooky Rivers - Geo Rutherford (middle grade science) - September 15

Bodies of Magic - Freya Marske (dark academia/fantasy) - September 15 🏳️‍🌈

The Eagle in the Mountain - Caskey Russell (epic fantasy) - September 22 ⭐️

A Divided Duty - Seanan McGuire (urban fantasy) - September 29

The Scarlet Ball - Nghi Vo (historical fantasy) - October 6 ⭐️

Victorious - V.E. Schwab (superhero fiction) - October 6

The Unhaunting - Micaiah Johnson (horror) - October 20 ⭐️

Killing Time - Elly Griffith (mystery/time travel) - November 16

[ninja-muse]

January always seems to be a good reading month for me, and this one was no exception. I managed 12 books, though I strongly suspect having three novellas in the mix really helped. I didn't manage to overcome my inertia about posting reviews, however, though maybe that's a good thing? I'd have probably done one for Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and then been grumpy that Winter Tide was more worthy.

So yeah, that was my top read of the month, for being a fabulous reworking of the Lovecraftian mythos to talk about the aftereffects of genocide, marginalization, and the fight to be seen as people rather than monsters. I had it as an audiobook, which means I was reading it solely at home, and I couldn't wait to get back to it. I'll be trying to read the sequel in the next couple years. I'm very glad to have picked it up and not let it slide in favour of waiting for Emrys's upcoming books, whatever they are.

I'm also very glad I picked up The Everlasting. I was on the fence, since so much of the story sounded (and is) similar to The Isle in the Silver Sea and I worried that it would be so close it would feel like a cheap copy. Not the case! It tackles the themes differently, in an equally beautiful and powerful way, and where Isle made me ache for the characters, The Everlasting made me angry over how they were being used. It's worth reading on its own, and worth it also as a companion piece to Isle.

(Honestly, it's shocking how many books have come out in the last year alone about the dangers of fascist states and the need to revolt and stand up to power. She says sarcastically. See also: Audition for the Fox.)

Another standout for the month was One's Company by Peter Fleming (brother of Ian), who convinced the London Times they needed a correspondent in Japanese-occupied Manchuria and on the burgeoning Communist revolution. He's a wonderful travel writer, witty and perspective and great at describing people and places and moments concisely. Exactly the sort of travel memoir I enjoy most! Unfortunately, for all that Fleming's pretty open-minded compared to some of the other Westerners he runs into, he's still rather paternalistic towards Chinese people, perpetuating stereotypes, and makes some disappointing comments about Jews. Also, his attitude towards the occupation of Manchuria is decidedly mixed. This makes for a fascinating portrait of China in that period, and of him as a person, but … reader be warned.

I also ended up breaking my rule not to read similar things close together by semi-accidentally reading two Alexis Hall novels in the same month. The first, Iron & Velvet, is an early work (debut?) that would be a loving homage to 2010s urban fantasy if it hadn't actually been written during the boom. There are dramatic and sexy vampires, cranky and sexy werewolves, a PI with just enough brain cells to keep their job, and so very, very many shenanigans. And the second book, Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot, is the third and presumably last of what I'm calling the "Bake-Off Romances". I'm not sure where I'd rank it compared to the other two, but I had a lot of fun.

Everything else I finished was somewhere between "quite good" and "enjoyable", so I'll skip those for time in favour of, sigh, my three DNFs, all of which were for disconnection from the characters and predictability. I could see early on where all three were going and I had no interested on seeing them get there. I wonder if I'm getting a little pickier or just had a bad run, and if the trend is going to end up continuing?

Two books off my TBR this month, and two book hauled, only one of which (the McGuire) was planned. The Halfling's Harvest showed up at a used bookstore, looked interesting in a "this could be a comp title someday" way, and since it's self-published, I doubted I'd ever get a crack at it again. Now I just have to finish my WIP so I can read it!

As for what I'm reading, Murderland is excellent. One of those deep-drive rabbit hole sorts of books, a web of rather interesting but horrifying coincidences that really paints a portrait. Several portraits. Yes, serial killers are terrifying but the lengths corporations will go to to maximize profits is appalling, and Fraser really makes you feel both things—and more. (Also, my read-through of Holmes has hit "The Final Problem".)

Next up, and I need to get cracking on this bright and early because of library due dates: The Rose Field by Philip Pullman. I've been lukewarm about this sequel trilogy so far, but I've got to finish it out. I hope he at least sticks the ending.

And now, as usual, everything I read this month in order of how worth it they were to me…

Winter Tide - Ruthanna Emrys

Aphra, one of the last land-dwelling Deep Ones, is called on by the FBI to help discover if the Russians have learned forbidden magic that could aid the burgeoning Cold War. She agrees mostly because it will connect her to parts of her culture she’s had stolen.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (ace-spec), Japanese-American secondary characters, Jewish secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, sapphic), disabled secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: aftermath of genocide; some racist and sexist characters and structures

library audiobook

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil - V.E. Schwab

Three women in different times seeking freedom become vampires. This is both a blessing and a curse.

7.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, gay, bi woman), Black secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: misogyny, spousal rape, murder, blood

off my TBR

Snake-Eater - T. Kingfisher

Selena escapes her life to a tiny desert town, only to find that her aunt has passed and there’s a local god with his eye on her.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (trans woman), Latine secondary characters

warning: animal injury and death

reading copy

The Everlasting - Alix E. Harrow

Owen Mallory has made it his life’s work to study the knight who helped found his nation, but his research sends him back in time to meet her—and she’s everything and nothing like how he pictured. And this may have all happened before.

8/10

major character of colour, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (bisexual)

warning: violence, blood, fascists, death, suicide and suicidal ideation

library book

One’s Company - Peter Fleming

A journalist’s account of travelling to and within China in 1933.

8/10

warning: some antisemitism, misogyny, racism, racial slurs; some approval of colonization and Westernization

off my TBR

Cinder House - Freya Marske

Ella is a ghost, trapped within her childhood home and enslaved to the whims of her stepfamily. That is, until she discovers a loophole and the prince throws three consecutive balls.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bisexual)

warning: death, abuse

library ebook

Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot - Alexis Hall

Audrey expected being on Bake Expectations to be interesting, but she wasn’t counting on an hot, aggressively sweary showrunner, or learning the secret past of another contestant.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bisexual, lesbian), Somali-British secondary character

library ebook

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold - Seanan McGuire

Nancy’s happy in the Halls of the Dead until something starts coming for her fellow statues, forcing her to return to Earth for help.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (asexual), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (trans boy); Latino, Japanese-American and Chinese-Canadian secondary characters, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: blood

bought/off my TBR

Iron & Velvet - Alexis Hall

Kate Kane is your average cynical supernatural PI, broke enough to take a murder case from a vampire prince despite her better judgement.

6.8/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, gay, trans man), 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: blood, gore, animal death, rats

library ebook

A Tangle in Time - Josiah Bancroft

The Wilbys discover a murder only to be sent to a timeline where things happened differently and they've forgotten what they've seen.

7/10

library book

On Isabella Street - Genevieve Graham

In 1968 Toronto, a psychiatrist and aspiring folk singer both confront realities of the Vietnam War while dealing with everyday misogyny and the complexities of life.

7/10

🇨🇦

library ebook

Audition for the Fox - Martin Cahill

Desperate for a patron Pillar, Nesi auditions for the Fox, who promptly sends her back to the Occupation of her homeland. To succeed, she must start the revolution.

6/10

protagonist of colour, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary, sapphic)

warning: genocide, xenophobia, violence

library book

Picture Books

Bored - Felicita Sala

Rita is bored. Bored bored bored. What is she going to do?

DNF

The Haunting of William Thorn - Ben Alderson

William travels to his newly inherited crumbling estate to heal from the death of his fiancé, only to find it possibly haunted and with a mysterious resident gardener.

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay)

library book

Lady Like - Mackenzi Lee

Two women set their sights on the same duke, but might be better matches for each other.

🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (sapphic)

library book

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days - Jessie Sylva

When Pansy inherits a cottage, she finds it inhabited and “cared for” by a goblin, Ren. Neither of them want to leave or the other to stay. So … sharing until someone has enough it is!

🏳️‍🌈 POV character (nonbinary)

library ebook

Currently reading

Murderland - Caroline Fraser

A portrait of the Pacific Northwest in the mid-twentieth century that draws together deadly infrastructure, deadly geography, deadly industry, and deadly people. What if part of what makes a serial killer is a literally toxic environment?

warning: graphic violence, graphic murder, graphic health problems, deaths of children

library ebook

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 12 + 1 Yearly total: 12 Queer books: 7 Authors of colour: 0 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 2 Books hauled: 2 ARCs acquired: 1 ARCs unhauled: 1 DNFs: 3

[ninja-muse]

Your reading year looks so good! I'm curious about your opinion on Stone & Sky by Ben Aaronovitch?

A new Aaronovitch book is always a treat! I know I'll be in for a fun time. I liked that this one got Peter out of London, that it introduced some different lore and a different sort of mystery, that the Folly team has expanded so much from just Peter and Nightingale and that he's matured as a person to boot. I thought the new lore was woven in as creatively as always (how does Aaronovitch come up with some of this stuff?) and some of the "older" bits of world-building come back as well.

I'm looking forward to the book where all the different magical agencies and traditions kind of collide and become more central to the plot than "tradition/villain of the week" though.

[ninja-muse]

How did you like This Princess Kills Monsters? Its on my reading pile for work (teen librarian)

It was fun! One of those kind of deliberately silly, not taking itself seriously, fairy tale mash-ups where just about anything can happen and the wildest plot twists can make sense. It's quippy, it's full of fairy tale shout-outs, and it's entertaining. I found the MC a little slow sometimes, and a bit whiny, but I was happy to follow her all the same. Had some good plot twists and some good villain motivation.

[ninja-muse]

You read a few murder mysteries this year I see! Which was your favorite?

Ooh, that's tricky! Probably Murder by Memory because it managed satisfying + cozy + sci-fi + strong characters all in a novella. I'm looking forward to the next one.