moonytoast's reviews
267 reviews

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

medium-paced

2.5

I really liked pieces of this story: snippets of prose, overarching concepts, and certain themes. However, the overall book itself felt too meandering in its plot and tone. Casiopeia has the foundation of a great, compelling character, but at moments she just feels like an empty vessel. I still really loved the Mayan mythology here and I will very much be reading other works by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in the future, but this was a tough read.

Content Warnings

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

alexa play "what is this feeling?" from wicked: the musical soundtrack

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!

An alluring blend of folklore and magical intrigue, A Dark and Drowning Tide is a sapphic fantasy romance perfect for fans of Ava Reid and Freya Marske.

We are drawn into a world of fantasy, fairytale, and politics inspired by nineteenth-century Germany as Brunnestaad is still in its infancy after its king, Wilhelm, completed the campaign for unification his late father had started, unifying the different provinces under one kingdom. With unification tenuous and threats still beyond their borders, Wilhelm orders an expedition to find the Ursprung, a mythical spring that can grant unbridled magical power in order to secure his reign.

Enter Lorelai Kaskel: a folklorist tormented by guilt and grief at the murder of her younger brother, turned cynical by the path she chose that led her to be named co-leader of the expedition alongside her mentor, Professor Ziegler. Succeeding in finding the spring is her one chance at freedom. Lorelai is a Yevani, a ethnoreligious minority in the world of Brunnestaad who have been persecuted for centuries and whose movements are heavily restricted. She’s determined to see this through and be granted authority by the king to travel the world and fulfill her dream of becoming a naturalist.

This dream is ruptured when her mentor and the leader of the expedition is found murdered in the dead of night, all of her notes and journals vanished without a trace. Each member of the expedition is a suspect with their own hidden motives. Lorelai must work with her academic rival, Sylvia von Wolff, to solve the murder while assuming leadership of the expedition as more dangers lay ahead—mythical monsters, forests that rearrange themselves at night, and tensions simmering among the remaining members of the expedition.

I cannot reiterate enough that fantasy with unapologetically Jewish elements has become one of my favorite subgenres. I think part of it is that antisemitic tropes have been so deeply ingrained into the fabric of fantasy and fairytales, which is a key element of A Dark and Drowning Tide. As a folklorist, Lorelai is deeply familiar with the ways in which the Yevani have been portrayed through fables and fairytales. We are told many of them that echo our own—most notably The Jew Among Thorns, a fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm, becomes The Yeva in the Thorns. Saft and many other Jewish fantasy writers are intimately aware of this and use fantasy as a way to engage in a conversation about that history, which makes their writing all the more refreshing.

Allison Saft is a master in the craft of yearning and a well-built slow burn. Her writing style is exquisite, always deeply evocative and heart-wrenching as she unfurls the layers of her main characters until their bloody, still-beating hearts are exposed on paper. I fell in love with Lorelai and Sylvia von Wolff and found myself letting out guttural, inhuman noises at their frustrated yearning. (A tried and true sign of a masterful romance, if I may say so.) If you’re a fan of rivals to lovers and unabashed sapphic desire, this book will pull you under its current like a riptide and leave you gasping for air.

At its core, A Dark and Drowning Tide is a bruising love letter to folklore, an unabashed confrontation of the prejudices that lie at the center of many fairy tales, and a burning but tender love story.

Content Warnings

Let's Roll: A Guide to Setting Up Tabletop Role-Playing Games in Your School Or Public Library by Lucas Maxwell

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informative

3.0

This is a great starting resource for anyone who feels a bit out of their depth getting a TTRPG group or program established at your local school or public library. A great blend of scholarly information, program examples, and beginner guides to setting up a TTRPG program.

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced