Classes are settling in and fall is on the horizon (I say, hopefully, looking at the 80 degree weather forecast for later this week)! This week was hectic but I managed to get a good amount of reading done, in addition to stocking up the Blind Date with a Book display I’ve been working on for the library, so I’m a happy camper. Not much else is new, but we have one ARC, one new release, one backlist title, and two audiobook rereads to talk about, so let’s get into it!
Buzzard by Inez Ray (out 9/22)
This was an ARC so you can read my full review here! This is a dystopian novel about the last midwife with the training to perform an abortion who was arrested and escaped imprisonment, and seven years later has the opportunity
to take down a corrupt paramilitary corporation and possibly be reunited with her sons.
To paraphrase my own review, I think this is an important book but I just wish it was also a good one. The future Ray depicts is relevant and deeply disturbing, with lots of fast-paced action and some pretty grotesque moments, but it’s thematically pretty shallow, the world isn’t explained super well, and the characters don’t have much substance to them. A lot of characters don’t get conclusions to their storylines which just makes you feel like there wasn’t really a point in them being there. This is also yet another book that doesn’t understand the need for balance, though it’s in kind of the opposite way of what I outlined in my essay The Magical Drought. There are no moments of joy or relief or beauty in Buzzard, and because of that you kind of just get numb to the horrible things going on. It ends up being very one-note.
I also must mention the use of the term “unalived” towards the end of the book. STOP USING MODERN SLANG IN BOOKS WHERE IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! This book takes place in the 2080s—why would someone who wasn’t alive in the 2020s be using 2020s slang? Similar to The Lord of the Wood (mentioned in this roundup), that moment took me out of the book and also just massively pissed me off.
The Devil Knows Her Name by C. N. Vair
This is a folk horror/fantasy novel about Tess, a witch living in a small Appalachian town who made a deal with the devil a century before in the midst of her own murder. Tess uses her power to protect the town and work as a
wildlife rehabilitator, but when a new preacher arrives in town and threatens the sanctuary Tess has so carefully constructed as well as the strange fawn she’s adopted, after all this time the claws might just come out.
This was really great and that’s saying something considering I usually don’t like anything with witches in it. Usually, witchy books just mean a lackluster, hand-wave-y magic system, a half-assed message of female empowerment/solidarity, and occasionally some mild-to-moderate cultural appropriation. Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian and now The Devil Knows Her Name are some of the few exceptions to this, and in a lot of ways their takes on witches feel similar since they’re both folk horror novels about a lone witch who uses her power to aid her neighbors, only for them to turn on her because of a religious zealot. There’s a lot more to sink your teeth into, and I think the devil and the fawn in this book help flesh out the magic and horror elements. This is also a book that understands balance! The central conflict is the threat to Tess’s sanctuary, and early on in the book we get some really beautiful scenes of the sanctuary, Tess hosting her friends, and some of her successful rehabilitation efforts. These scenes make you care about the sanctuary and understand why Tess is so attached to it, so later when it’s threatened you actually feel the impact of it. It feels like a genuine intrusion when the gate is broken, and if the whole book was just doom and horror you wouldn’t get that feeling.
I know complaining about balance is probably getting pretty redundant at this point, but I wouldn’t have to keep bringing it up if it didn’t keep being an issue. Overall, this book has great fall vibes, fun creepy bits, and a healthy, satisfying dose of female rage. I’m really glad I picked it up!
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
This is a dystopian novel made up of interconnected short stories following the unearthing of an ancient virus frozen in the Arctic that rapidly spreads and completely changes the world. From many different POVs, we
see grief from all angles and the way humanity stubbornly persists in the face of mass devastation.
This was on my list of twenty-six books I want to read in 2026 which I mentioned in my last roundup, and I’m not terribly surprised that I didn’t love it because it could have gone either way for me. I like the premise of this virus unleashed from the ice and the whole structure of interconnected stories was a cool idea, but I just think it loses steam. The thing that makes the first few stories good is that even though they are clearly interconnected and set in the same world, they also each feel like they could stand on their own since they have clear through-lines and offer such different perspectives. As the stories go on though a lot of the perspectives start to blend together and the narratives get more similar to one another, while also relying more heavily on the groundwork laid by the previous stories. I’d have moments of “Oh, that’s that person from the other story” but there wasn’t always a lot of cohesion or purpose to the connection. By the end, you’ve drifted pretty far from both the basic premise and the structure hasn’t been utilized to its fullest extent, plus by nature of the constantly shifting perspective you haven’t gotten really attached to any one character. There are some really great emotional moments early on, but a lot of the writing is that very direct, non-descriptive style that doesn’t really do it for me.
A lot of people love this book so it’s probably worth a shot, but it was a letdown for me. On the bright side, that’s eight books on the list of twenty-six in 2026 down, eighteen to go!
The Sword of the Summer and The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan
(Reread – no rating)
These are the first and second books of Rick Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series which follows a Norse demigod named Magnus as he dies and becomes an undead warrior, getting tangled up in godly spats and other hijinks as he and his friends try to prevent doomsday.
This series is such a joy to reread. Magnus Chase is my favorite of Rick Riordan’s series (with Heroes of Olympus and Kane Chronicles tied for second place) and I’m just so happy to be revisiting such formative books. For one, this was the first book series I ever read with a genderqueer main character, and remains the only series I’ve read with a genderfluid love interest. Honestly, every time Alex is on page I get a little choked up because of how important she/he is to me. It was also the first book I read with a deaf main character and probably even one of the first books I read with a Muslim main character. This series was a lot of firsts for me, with Riordan’s great sense of humor, great pacing, and of course a nice balance of highs and lows. The world is so charming, and the whole thing really holds up for me. I’ll of course finish it off with the third book this upcoming week, and then maybe do a reread of Kane Chronicles!
Fun fact: The Magnus Chase series is also responsible for the adoption of my family’s dog, Lili! We had been looking for a dog and we went to Barnes & Noble so I could get the third Magnus Chase book when it came out. There was a PetsMart next door and they were doing a shelter showing where we met Lili for the first time, and we came back to adopt her a week later!
This felt like a good reading week even though there were a few duds, or maybe I’m just in a good mood! In order to get through my list of twenty-six books in 2026 (which I’m planning to make a dedicated blog post about), I’ll need to read at least one a week for the rest of the year. Probably for this upcoming week it will be The Mercenary and the Mortician by Alexandra St. Pierre since I’ve been saying that I’m going to read it in like the last three roundups–it’s a dark queer romance I’ve heard great things about. Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher is also on the table since I just got my hold in on Libby, and that’s a fantasy romance. In terms of ARCs, next up is Strange Lights by Mira Gonzalez (out 10/6) which I plan to get to this week. I also have The Dungeon Book by Gareth Hanrahan checked out, but I might return it if I’m not in the mood. I’ll definitely be listening to the last Magnus Chase book and maybe starting the first Kane Chronicles book on audio! Plenty to look forward to as always 🙂
Have you read any of these books? Did I convince you to read one of them (or not to read one of them)? By all means, let me know what you’ve enjoyed recently or what you’re looking forward to!
Happy reading!
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