I hope everyone’s summer is going well! Another week has passed. I read four books this week but two of them were pretty long and I wasn’t doing much audiobook listening. This was actually a pretty good week—I really enjoyed three out of the four books. Shockingly, I actually stuck to the books I said I was planning to read at the end of my roundup for last week, so we have one ARC, one audiobook / reread, and two recent releases. Let’s get into it!
The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager
This is a horror novel about an expedition team of academics that enter a cave in a monolith that appeared in the middle of the ocean and become trapped, undergoing trials to satisfy the whims of a strange and powerful entity.
This was unfortunately the disappointment of the week and it still wasn’t terrible. It was more disturbing than I expected, which in my book is a good thing because a lot of the popular horror I’ve read in recent years has been kind of horror lite.
At the end of my last roundup I mentioned that I was excited for this book because it has two of my favorite horror/sci-fi tropes: eldritch horror and research teams. Funnily enough, those are really the two areas where the book failed the most. The appeal of the research team trope is that you have this group of people with established relationships, probably with some potential drama or secrets or rivalries but also probably with some close friendships or partnerships, which makes the story more character-focused (which I prefer, and is often lacking in horror) and allows for some interpersonal conflict and emotional moments outside of the conflict with the main antagonist. In this book, Caro really knows like…two of the people on the team and few of the other characters know one another so when they die it feels like they were just there to be cannon fodder. Caro was also just pretty lacking as a character, so even in scenes that had potential to be emotional I was pretty uninterested.
It also must be said: This is not eldritch horror. There is nothing eldritch about the entity involved. It’s not unfathomable because Caro…fathoms (?) it. She comprehends it enough to manipulate it by flattering its ego, and I simply don’t think you should be able to butter up an eldritch being. She literally sees it, it’s not even that big! I know no one cares but I care. I signed up for horrors beyond human comprehension and I got a big snake with a god complex that simply cares way too much about the affairs of puny humans.
So it really didn’t deliver what I wanted and I think the writing also ended up being a touch long-winded. If you really liked the movie The Descent, maybe give it a shot, but I’m not sure it’s worth your time.
Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty
This was an ARC so you can read my full review here! This is a sci-fi novel about a woman who, through an odd series of events, ends up getting a job at a company that offers clients the ability to travel back in time.
Sound familiar? This book has a very similar base premise to Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein which I talked about in last week’s roundup and in this essay. Luckily, the books actually differ quite a lot and I think Time Travel for Beginners did a much better job providing a strong, well-paced plot than Retro, with a stronger cast of characters and more emotional impact.
It’s a really great story that feels grounded and realistic in spite of the speculative elements. It’s quite long (over 500 pages) but I didn’t even really notice because my digital ARC didn’t have page numbers and the pacing feels pretty snappy even if the actual plot events occur more slowly. Strong characters are really crucial to my reading experience and Moriarty did a good job fleshing everyone out and filling their lives with details and relationships external to the plot that made them feel more real. Definitely recommend!
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews
This is an epic portal fantasy novel (first in an ongoing series) about a woman named Maggie who wakes up in the fantasy world from her favorite book series and must use her knowledge of the books to survive and protect her favorite
characters. I love portal fantasies and I would say this is just a really solid epic fantasy in general, especially if you like political intrigue. Ilona Andrews (which is actually the pen name of a husband and wife writing duo) has a big backlist so they definitely know what they’re doing and you can feel that in the pacing and the amount of detail that has gone into the world-building.
It can get a little info-dump-y at points. I think especially during the 25-50% part of the book there’s a lot of just name dropping and backstory, but that’s often the case with high fantasy, especially when there’s a heavy political intrigue plotline. I love political intrigue, I loved how dark it got at points because I’m a freak who loves suffering, and the romance was *chef’s kiss*. This is really my ideal level of romance where it’s definitely there, and there are some great feet-kicking-and-squealing moments, but it’s not distracting from the plot. The main plot and the romance are intertwined and natural together, so it doesn’t feel like a romance with weak fantasy shoved in or a fantasy with a forced romance shoved in. I look forward to reading the next book in the series whenever it comes out!
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (reread)
This is a very difficult novel to describe. It’s a fantasy(ish) novel about a man called Piranesi (though he is sure that isn’t his name) who lives in a giant labyrinth of halls filled with massive marble statues, birds, and
water. Honestly, it’s best to go in knowing very little.
I read this book for the first time probably around 2022 (Goodreads says 2023 but that feels late to me), and seeing as I’ve read literally hundreds of books since then, I can say with confidence that there isn’t anything else like it. It’s very slow and there’s not much going on for most of the book. The plot does pick up towards the end, but I don’t really love this book because of its plot. The world that Piranesi inhabits, which he calls The House, is so beautiful and you really fall in love with Piranesi himself because he explores the house with such innocent curiosity, passion, and respect. I reread this on audiobook because I had heard good things about the audiobook, and it is pretty well done but I might recommend trying it in print or ebook first because I think I prefer it that way. It’s kind of a hard book to sell, but if you can kind of relax and let yourself be immersed, it’s just a story like no other.
That’s it for this week, definitely good overall. Reading two long books back to back that didn’t feel annoyingly stretched out was really nice. As usual, I have a lot of options for this upcoming week. I don’t think I can put off reading my ARC of The Salt King by Natasha Pulley any longer, which is probably my most anticipated read of the summer if not of the year, so keep an eye out for me losing my mind about that book. I also have an ARC of The Burn Line by Jonathan Sims which I’ve heard good things about so I’ll probably get to it either this week or next week. I have the audiobook of Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London checked out which sounds ridiculous so I’m excited for that. I also have Lord of the Wood by E. M. Anderson checked out which sounds like a nice queer horror-fantasy, and A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hamilton which is the kind of book I read the blurb of like six months ago and thought sounded good but have since entirely forgotten the premise so I’m going in blind. (From my recollection, it might be a thriller about a person being kept as a pet after a lobotomy? Who knows. The reviews are good, though.)
Lots to look forward to! I hope you also have some exciting stuff to read. By all means, let me know what you’ve enjoyed recently or what you’re looking forward to!
Also, if you haven’t already, please feel free to check out my recent essay, In Defense of Anti-Intellectualism. A lot of research went into it and I think it’s pretty good!
Happy reading!
Recent posts:
Leave a Reply