moonytoast's reviews
268 reviews

The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

HOLY SHITTTTT this was so good, very much evoking.... a certain episode of The Haunting of Hill House (if you know, you know)
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr

Go to review page

informative

3.5

this book walked so that tiktok song about the 800+ military bases spread across the globe could run
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

 Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!

PREVIOUSLY PITCHED AS a sapphic murder mystery on a boat, I have been eagerly awaiting the follow-up to Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light since I read it earlier this year and absolutely fell in love with this series. I’m a sucker for historical fantasy, and add a sapphic romance at the forefront and a Titanic-esque setting? That sounds right up my alley. 
 
A Restless Truth easily proves itself to be an enticing second installment in the Last Binding series and, in some ways, surpasses expectations by expanding the mystery and worldbuilding in a unique way. Over the course of Maud Blyth’s increasingly dangerous transatlantic journey, we see different ways of conducting magic beyond the standard English cradle methods introduced in the first book. 
 
As always, I adored Marske’s writing style. They manage to create these lush, expansive environments full to the brim with beautiful description and imbibes characters’ internal monologues with excellent and lyrical prose. It perfectly suits her current niche of historical fantasy with the Last Binding series, but I would honestly read anything by her. 
 
I loved A Marvellous Light and enjoyed Robin as a character, but I do think that Maud is a more interesting and engaging protagonist. Perhaps that is because she has a greater sense of agency than Robin throughout the story; both of the Blyth siblings were unceremoniously thrown into the world of magic, but I think that the difference between Maud’s early path and Robin’s is that Maud has a greater sense of the magical world at the start of the story. Maud knows magic is real and is tasked with a clear quest, even if that does go awry in the wake of Miss Navenby’s murder. Comparatively, Robin is thrust into this world without any clear understanding and put under a curse that effectively removes any choice to participate in the unraveling of a grand magical scheme. At many points, Maud internally voices that she feels useless compared to her companions, Violet Debenam and Lord Hawthorn, but the narrative itself disputes that belief. 
Violet was an intriguing character and it was fun to watch her perform and even more engaging to see her peel back these superficial elements and bare true parts of herself to Maud. There’s a complexity to her that feels so refreshing for a character that, at first glance, seems to parallel characterizations of Pansy Parkinson in certain fanfiction (if you know, you know). 
 
Quite surprisingly, I ended up enjoying the expanded role of Hawthorn in this book. I found him interesting in A Marvellous Light, but we as the reader don't spend that much time with him and, when we did, it was through the eyes of Robin and Edwin. The dynamic between him, Maud, and Violet Debenam ends up evoking elements of the double act—namely Hawthorn as the straight man. I think that suits his personality well and also helps to make the moments where that dynamic shifts... where Hawthorne breaks from that mold and reveals the glimpses of knowledge and experience that escalate the tension... even more impactful. 
 
I think Maud was the perfect character to help break down the seemingly passive yet thorny walls of Hawthorn. One of my favorite moments in the book comes after a scene in which Hawthorn challenges Maud to a game of chess in the hopes of getting her to stop pursuing the piece of the Last Contract and, despite being on a path to victory, willingly surrenders his king. There's a short, quiet moment when Maud is leaving and Hawthorn reveals his hand: "My sister..." He grimaced. "She was a little like you." 

The setting of the R.M.S. Lyric is an integral part of this story, isolating Maud Blyth in the liminal space of a ship surrounded on all sides by the Atlantic Ocean. She is effectively left to her own wits and persuasion in order to solve the mystery of Miss Navenby’s murder and recover the second piece of the Last Contract. 
 
Nineteenth and early twentieth-century passenger ships have such an interesting aesthetic and sociocultural nature with the distinction between first-class and third-class passengers in a very physical sense – there is a literal separation built into the design of the ship to prevent a co-mingling of these two groups in areas designed to be pleasurable for the wealthy first-class passengers. Moving between these groups comes at a social risk for first-class passengers… With the watchful eyes of members of English and American high society on board, the Lyric almost feels like a panopticon at certain moments, which is used by and against the characters of A Restless Truth. 
 
The plot in of itself is not as complicated and there is less intrigue, but such is the nature of some series. We learn in the first book the reason why this shadowy group of magicians were targeting Robin and their motivation for doing so, but there are still some gaps in the knowledge around the Last Contract that this fills in for Maud and her group of lovable first-class rogues. The pacing dips a little bit in the middle chunk of the book, but overall it didn't bother me too much. 

Now that
each side has one piece of the Contract,
I’m interested in how Marske will manage to build a compelling and engaging conclusion to this story. Personally, I hope Hawthorn gets the main character treatment in the next book. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Go to review page

4.25

RTC….. until then, support the HarperCollins Union strike!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Go to review page

dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

ok the audiobook of this?????? HOLY SHIT it lends so much to the tension and horror of this story, like the difference between maddie’s voice and not maddie’s voice is just so well done and exquisitely uncomfortable to listen to. my only qualms are that i think it 
Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Go to review page

adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Go to review page

dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Monk and Robot is cozy, philosophical science fiction series that has quickly become a favorite of mine. Imagine engaging with questions about the nature of consciousness, humanity, and human needs… but with the company of a tea monk going through a crisis of purpose and an overexcitable robot named Splendid Speckled Mosscap. 

Mosscap gave Dex a reproachful look. "All parasites have value, Sibling Dex. Not to their hosts, perhaps, but you could say the same about a predator and a prey animal. They all give back—not to the individual but to the ecosystem at large. Wasps are tremendously important pollinators. Birds and fish eat bloodsucks."

The world Chambers creates is one I would actually kill to live inside. Everything about this story—the prose, the themes, the characters—feels like a warm hug and a soft, earnest assurance that you can exist and be uncertain about the answer to big existential questions or even questions about yourself.
 
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

Go to review page

adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Thank you to Netgalley and Levine Querido for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!

When the Angels Left the Old Country is even more proof that historical fantasies written by marginalized authors who center the lived historical experiences of people with the same marginalizations are just objectively better!

Jewish Good Omens is an apt comparison for this story about an angel and a demon working together to traverse the Atlantic Ocean in search for a young girl that had left their little shtetl for the New World. I think fans of Neil Gaiman's other works, particularly Neverwhere and Stardust, will enjoy the writing style and tone of this book. It's got a whimsical vibe at many points, but knows precisely when to dial up the tension and intrigue. I think this is clear in Little Ash's confrontation with the gentile demon on Ellis Island and the last ten or so chapters of the book as everything comes to a crescendo.

This may not be for readers who enjoy more fast-paced fantasy stories, but hot take: I think sometimes a slow build is essential for a good story, because you need the chance to grow attached to the characters and see their change before you can genuinely care about whether they achieve their goals by the end of the book. I think this book is a perfect example of that. Seeing Uriel and Little Ash's relationship dynamic shift as they embark on their journey to find Essie is such an integral and standout aspect of When the Angels Left the Old Country, the entire narrative would not be remotely as engaging without it.

He loved his chevrusa with all of his heart: he'd known it by a hundred names, and he'd loved it always. He could not ask it to give up a name it liked having, not even to keep it safe. "All right," he said. He laced their fingers together and lifted its hand to his lips. kissing its bruised knuckles. "All right. You can be Uriel forever, and save a hundred rebbes. Be an angel or a demon or anything you like. Just don't leave me."
Expand filter menu Content Warnings