I’ll be doing weekly updates with quick thoughts on what I read, particularly for books that don’t warrant a full scale review. If I have written a full review, it will be linked.
Not a particularly outstanding or terrible week. My Lady Jane and A Prince Among Pirates were both audiobooks and were pretty fun, really taking me back to my YA roots. Other than that, we have two ARCs, one DNF, and one book I mentioned in my recent essay. Let’s get into it!
This is a novel about a woman who gets a job at a company which allows people to travel back in time recreationally. (As I mention in the above essay) I’ve read a lot of books in the past year or so that were somehow lacking in magic, not necessarily in terms of fantasy but in terms of beauty, enchantment, and escapism. Retro is kind of a funny case where the book is so magical but the plot structure is…poorly done let’s say. I could read at least 300 more pages of Ash just going on adventures through time, seeing all the lost wonders of the world, spending time with her colleagues, and dealing with annoying clients. That is most of what this book is and Goldstein really knows how to draw the magic out of those scenes. Then in the last 50 pages, the book really speedruns the central conflict in a way that is–at best–rushed and confusing. For some spoiler-y notes on the ending check out my goodreads review.
Deeply enchanting, 10/10 escapism, absolute clusterfuck of a plot. I still really enjoyed reading it, but if you are looking for a strong plot, you won’t find it here.
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
This is a YA Fantasy/Historical/Romance retelling of the short reign of Jane Grey, taking place in a version of our world where some people have the ability to turn into animals. Funnily enough, one of my middle school librarians gave me this book to read probably eight years ago and I’m only now getting around to it. It’s very goofy, but it’s a fun read and the audiobook narrator does a really great job. I don’t think I’m going to continue the series, but it’s a shame I didn’t read this when I was twelve because I probably would have loved it!
A Prince Among Pirates by Katie Abdou
This is a Queer Historical YA novel with some romance about the son of a viscount who runs away before his arranged marriage and accidentally ends up joining a pirate crew, and it was super cute! A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice & Virtue was one of the first queer books I ever read and this definitely has similar vibes. I liked the characters and I was really glad that the author focused on Kit’s found family relationship with the crew and a little bit of him discovering his mother’s culture. I would say it’s less romance-forward than the cover maybe makes it look like, but it was the perfect amount for me and I did chuckle every time Sharpe said “Kitten” (again, shoutout to the audiobook narrator). The conversation about passing kinda got shoved in at the end there but definitely a good time overall.
Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(DNF at ~50%)
This is a Sci-fi/Noir novel about a private investigator racoon living in a utopian future city where animals have been engineered to have human sentience and been tasked with doing all of the menial labor.
Tchaikovsky is so hit or miss for me. I didn’t really like The Expert System’s Brother and the second and third Children of Time books were a total miss, but I really liked the first book and I feel like he has cool ideas.
This is definitely one of those cool ideas, but there was so much infodumping and I was just not that invested in the plot. There were a few parts early on that felt kind of Fantastic Mr. Fox-ish which I loved but there isn’t much whimsy throughout and it ends up being a lot of Skotch just going from one place to the next meeting people without a whole lot of impact on him or the plot.
This was an ARC so I did in fact write a full review.
In short, this is a literary novel about a kind of odd, adrift young woman who becomes obsessed with her boyfriend’s cat. It was poignant and well-written, and I think the author touched on some stuff that really resonated with me. That being said, in the way of many literary books, it didn’t really go anywhere. I think I would have liked it more if it had gotten, like, a lot weirder. I have more thoughts in the full review, but overall it was good, just a bit forgettable.
(Mostly) Human Resources by Grace Viall
This was an ARC so here’s the full review.
Short version is I was expecting something like a rom-com take on the SCP Foundation (which I need immediately), and I got Supernatural meets Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies which probably sounds amazing to someone but not to me. Romance and plot were fine but the characters were remarkably stupid. Like 80s camp horror movie “We should split up!” “I’ll check the basement!” “I’ll check the attic!” “I’ll check the woods!” “Ooh, let me put on this haunted necklace!” levels of stupid. After a certain point, I just kind of lost my ability to empathize with them. It was a little funny and a little scary, but I wish it had picked a lane and stuck with it. If you like…cozy paranormal romance mysteries I guess you’ll probably like this.
That’s it for this week. I have a lot of books potentially lined up for next week as usual. I’m working my way through rereading Piranesi over audiobook, but I’m purposefully taking it slow since it’s been like five years since I first read it and I really want to savor it. Next up on my list of ARCs to get to are Time Travel For Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty which has a very similar premise to Retro, and a handful of other ARCs which I’m not in a huge rush to get to. I also have two books checked out on Libby: The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager which is a sci-fi horror with some of my favorite tropes (namely research teams and eldritch horrors), and This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews which I am simultaneously very excited for and also have been putting off reading for some reason. We’ll see what I end up getting to because my reading never seems to go according to plan. See you next week (and keep an eye out for a potentially inflammatory essay I’m working on)!
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