effy's reviews
1396 reviews

 

I started reading this book as part of my effort to decide how I was going to vote in this year’s Hugo Awards. It wasn’t a nominee (although it probably should have been) but rather it was one of the books edited by one of the nominated long-form editors.

It is kinda hard to describe what this book is about because, quite frankly it is an ✨experience✨. Loosely speaking, this book is about a novel virus that infects people in strange ways and the impact that it has on society. It is both a book with a very large focus but also a very intimate story as we are following the ways that three women’s lives were changed. It gets pretty weird.

I loved how unhinged this story is and it does a really good job of never shying away from the truly brutal body horror that results from the virus as well as really leaning into the cosmic in cosmic horror. I don’t think the point of this book was really to hold a mirror up to society but at the same time it was hard to ignore the social commentary in each woman’s story with the first story being around unequal healthcare and just sexism in gender, the second looking at sex work (I really enjoying the sex work positive rep) and the ways that stigmatising it can lead to increased trafficking, and then the final story was a story about forced birthing. Honestly, having written all of that out, I am doubting my initial assertion and think that was exactly the point. Horror has always been a tool for creatives to explore issues within society and shine a light on them so this book is following in a grand tradition.

I think perhaps I would have liked a less abrupt ending to the story but I think leaving it somewhat open felt tonally correct for how otherwise bleak the situation felt.

 

 

Vampire-obssessed? Moi? Why, yes, yes I am!

This book started-off a little slow for me because I had a hard time with the miscommunication that Reggie had told Amelia that he was a vampire but she had thought it was just joking. Whilst I could understand the logic, it felt a little frustrating to see scenes play-out where Reggie was like “..y’know, ‘cause I’m a vampire” and Amelia’s internal monologue was something along the lines of “oh, that Reggie, he’s just so quirky”. Thankfully, the resolution for this was relatively drama-free and didn’t feel over-exaggerated. I found the rest of the book read a lot smoother after Amelia and Reggie got on the same page. 

This was a pretty fun read and easily held my attention. I really enjoyed that it did not take itself too seriously and seemed to just be having fun. I particularly liked the way that Amelia genuinely enjoyed her job as an accountant and the ways that her seriousness about her job added an element of humour without it feeling like Amelia or accountants were being made to butt of a joke.

I hadn’t read My Roommate is a Vampire so this book can definitely be read first but I do plan to return to read Frederick and Cassie’s story as I enjoyed the little glimpses of their life that we saw. I am not sure if there is the scope for more vampire stories left in this world but I would love it if these weren’t the last we saw of Reggie and Amelia… maybe we will get a Grizzelda the Terrible story next?

 

 

This was one of my backlist eARCs for NetGalley (which I have slowly but surely been working through in an attempt to get to the blessed 100% ratio on NG by year-end). I chose to read it now because I saw that the audiobook was on Everand which felt like a great way to consume it and knock another book off my rather intimidating TBR list.

Whilst I don’t this book is inherently bad, it also didn’t really hit for me. This book felt almost painfully generic and like it was written with a tickbox of all of the common, popular tropes of YA fantasy books. I think the ideal audience for this book is a reader who is maybe just discovering YA fantasy and are eager to read more but don’t know what to pick up. This being said, I can also see this book being something that readers who have read a lot of the genre would eat up. I guess what I am saying is that it didn’t work for me but for somewhat subjective reasons 😅 I definitely think it was a well-written and plotted book, I simply didn’t vibe with it.

 

 

This was a fast-paced and enjoyable read. Theoretically having 14 characters all with the same name could have been confusing however Woolf creates little ways to differentiate them from the fact that the assassin Portrait encounters a deck of tarot cards early on in the narrative and so assigns each of her victims a tarot card, to the way that we see the ways that each of the Portraits have been changed by the life they have been given. 

Whilst it was fun to see the creative ways that all of the different versions of Lulabelle Rock die throughout this story, the really compelling part of the narrative was the feeling that you were seeing the way that a life can branch and divide based on the path that a person takes. One of the Portraits goes by the name Prudence (which whilst I don’t think is explicitly stated in the narrative, the reader is lead to believe was Lulabelle’s name before she became famous) and hers is a life of domestic bliss as she married her childhood sweetheart and had children with him. Prudence is particularly despised by the original Lulabelle. The why is left up to the reader but there is clearly a tension present between these two characters that they both think their path was the superior choice. There is also a Portrait who mostly gets referred to as the Artist or the Hierophant and her sole purpose seems to be, as the name might suggest, create art. In the Artist, I feel like we got a glimpse at possibly the most well-adjusted of all the Portraits. The Artist is not truly good at any of her creative pursuits but she is very fulfilled by her life. I appreciated the subtle undercurrent of thought-provoking philosophy layered under this story.

It was only when I came to write this review that I realised that I am not sure we ever truly got an explanation of what a Portrait is. I always got the impression that they were neither truly organic nor robots. I don’t mind that there is this question and it definitely didn’t distract from the narrative. I kinda respect that this is not a book that gets bogged-down in pseudoscience and decides to focus on the humanity of the tale.

This is a fun romp of a book and I can thoroughly recommend it.

 

 

I didn’t really know what to expect when I went into this book but I was utterly blown-away by the incredibly unique story that Edgmon has crafted with this book. One of the first things that really struck me was the fact that Gem is incredibly confident in himself and seems to be pretty accepted for being exactly as he is. His life is not completely free of microaggressions however it made a really refreshing change to pick-up a YA book with a trans protag where the conflict wasn’t because of their gender. This is not to say that there isn’t a place for these narratives, particularly with YA books, however there is something so beautiful about reading a book where trans people can simply exist. There is also a gorgeous representation of all queer identities within this book that absolutely made my heart sing. I was especially a fan of the poly rep and am excited to see their dynamic explored further in the sequel!

Edgmon has a true gift for  writing some of the most stunning prose that I have come across and had I been reading this book physically, you can guarantee that my copy of this book would have been chock full of tabs, underlining, and marginalia. Some of my favourite quotes are just quippy, relatable one-liners that I am sure a lot of queer folk can identify with and some of the quotes were powerful, sweeping statements that feel as though they tattoo themselves on your heart as you are reading them. I am sure to treasure this book for many years and re-reads to come.

This was an utterly compulsive read for me and once I started, I knew that I didn’t want to stop for anything. It was so easy to follow along with all of the plot and characters that it was easy to forget that this book introduces the reader to a pantheon of 17 new gods each with their own unique powers as well as each of them having at least two names. At no point did it feel as though info-dumping was happening and I didn’t have to stop to scratch my head and try to remember who’s who.

I look forward to seeing where this book goes in the conclusion to the duology and feel sure that I am going to be surprised right up until the end.

 

 

False Confidence is Snow’s third book and I have been desperately anticipating its release after being disappointed to have not been one of the lucky ones to get my hands on an ARC. Snow is easily one of my favourite authors so there was no world in which I wasn’t going to read this book.

This book was the perfect little palette cleanser for me after having a busy couple of weeks as well as having read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi recently so it was nice to read some contemporary romances. I really love the way that all of Snow’s characters in her books are queer and it is very much normalised; that is not to say that the characters don’t face homophobia, however it is refreshing to read books where queer people just ✨exist✨. Something else that is a hallmark of Snow’s books is that the characters will be kinda going through it but it will be a journey that has been written with sympathy and compassion so it never feels manufactured.

A book where the romance initially revolves around our MMC trying to make our FMC reach orgasm could have easily come across as contrived or awkward. That is not the case here. Snow manages to write a dynamic between these characters that doesn’t feel unbalanced at any point. I think part of why the narrative works so well is because it is very clear that the relationship between Jasmine and Liam goes beyond just a sexual agreement even if they don’t necessary say it out loud to one another. 

It is always a pleasure when a book doesn’t contain a third-act breakup (although if anyone can pull it off, it’s Snow) and this is one of those seemingly rare breeds of contemporary romance books where we don’t get the dreaded breakup and it actually kinda goes in the opposite direction…

The epilogue of this book goes in pretty much the direction you expect the epilogue of a romance book to go but also manages to feel fresh and unique. I don’t think I was particularly aware of the timeline of this story so it wasn’t until the characters themselves mentioned it in the epilogue that I even stopped to think about it. But it worked. The way things played-out was so chaotic and just felt so authentic for the characters. I do think some readers may struggle to get behind it but those readers would be wrong.

 

 

I had some issues with A Game of Love and Betrayal but overall found it a fun, candy-type read so I was looking forward to picking-up the second half of this duology and seeing where the story went next. I am not sure if it was just that I didn’t have the capacity to really get stuck into this story or if this latter half didn’t match up the same but it felt as though this book moved quite slowly and it took me ages to get through it. I am inclined to think it was the former rather than the latter as I thought the writing was much tighter and the plot moved at a good pace. The character quirks that annoyed me so much in the first book were almost completely absent in this book.

Something that I can’t quite put my finger on was missing from the story. I think I wanted to see a bit more of Brynleigh and Ryker just getting to be happy together but I know that isn’t really the standard in the genre. I think I would have also liked a little bit more explanation of how their futures looked together because the lore around vampire and fae lifespans didn’t feel fully explained? I think it is a tricky balance because when you have written a lot of books in the same world, you probably take for granted that the lore is established but it didn’t feel too solid to me?

A solid book and a fun time.

 

 

I only read this book a couple of weeks ago but apparently I have immediately forgotten all of the characters’ names however what I have not forgotten about this book is that it features slutty, poly, bisexual vampires and excuse me but if that isn’t exactly my kind of book, I don’t know what it! 

Something that stood out to me right at the start is that this is a book where Pierlot has not shied away from being viscerally graphic in her descriptions of what these vampires do to their victims and I absolutely ADORED that. I mean, honestly, I just had the very best time with this book from start to finish!

 

 

In this fourth instalment in the Singing Hills Cycle, Cleric Chih is in quite a different scenario as we have seen them previously as they return home to be greeted with the death of their mentor. 

Whilst all of the books in this series are quite gentle and thoughtful stories, this novella in particular felt as though it stood apart as it explores themes of grief as well as looking at the way that our interpersonal relationships may change as we mature. This is not going to be an easy book to get through for most readers and it is definitely a story that you want to contemplate and take your time with, just sitting with the narrative.

I particularly respected the way that we saw a wide variety of characters’ relationships with the deceased as well as the tales that they told about them. I think it was really beautiful the ceremony that was had for remembrance and I particularly loved that a conversation was had around remembering a person in their entirety even when that might feel inconvenient. I also absolutely loved the role that the hoopoes / neixens had in this tale.

 

 

This was a re-read for me however I think I was just in a better place to enjoy this book than the first time that I read it as I think it is the oh-so-rare situation where i actually enjoyed it on re-read more than when I had first picked it up. A large part of my higher enjoyment levels this time around is going to be down to having a much better feel for the way that Gibson writes as well as going into reading this book knowing what it was about as opposed to just what I thought it was going to be about. Another factor in my higher enjoyment levels is without a doubt the fact that I read it in physical format as I don’t think the audio works for me.

A Dowry of Blood is a queer and poly reimagining of Dracula’s brides but, beyond a brief mention of “trouble with the Harkers”, this book does not have much in the way of overlap with Dracula and it is significantly stronger for that being the case because, frankly, Dracula is an incredibly goofy story. This is a book that is absolutely full of Gibson’s trademark lyrical writing and I love how absolutely sumptuous the prose is.

In this book, we are following the way that Constanta, Magda, and Alexei are changed physically and mentally by their relationship with their abusive husband who is never named in the narrative (absolute power move!) but can be inferred to be Dracula. There is real care taken to show the love bombing at the beginning of the relationships followed by the slow tightening of the noose until each “bride” finds themselves trapped. This is a story of reclaiming power from an abuser and it is an incredibly powerful one.

I truly had the best time re-discovering this book and definitely cherish it.