Serena’s Review: “Daughter of Crows”

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Book: “Daughter of Crows” by Mark Lawrence

Publishing Info: Ace, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: The Academy of Kindness exists to create agents of retribution, cast in the image of the Furies—known as the kindly ones—against whom even the gods hesitate to stand. Each year a hundred girls are sold to the Academy. Ten years later only three will emerge.

The Academy’s halls run with blood. The few that survive its decade-long nightmare have been forged on the sands of the Wound Garden. They have learned ancient secrets amid the necrotic fumes of the Bone Garden. They leave its gates as avatars of vengeance, bound to uphold the oldest of laws.

Only the most desperate would sell their child to the Kindnesses. But Rue … she sold herself. And now, a lifetime later, a long and bloody lifetime later, just as she has discovered peace, war has been brought to an old woman’s doorstep.

That was a mistake.

Review: Somehow I’ve never gotten around to reading a book by Mark Lawrence up to this point. He’s put out several duologies/trilogies that have sparked my interest (I think I even had a few loaded on my Kindle), but for whatever reason, I just never managed to pick one up. Well, THAT will be changing now!

Because I loved this book. Pretty much everything about it, from the fantastic characters, to the brutal world, to the dry wit, to the rising stakes as the book progressed. I’ll also note that it was a bit refreshing to read a fantasy book that didn’t feature a romance. My favorite genre, honestly by far, is probably fantasy romance. But lately I’ve felt so burned by what feels like the cannibalization of the genre by romantasy slop that I’ve gotten to the point that I see a romance introduced, and I’m immediately put on high alert. No one is sadder about this fact than me. But Lawrence was here to remind me of the absolute gems that can be found back in the good ole “basic” epic fantasy genre.

One of the notable features of this book is the format in which it is told. The book description kind of mildly hints at this, but throughout the book, the story alternates between two timelines: Rue’s current life, when she’s well beyond her prime but facing a rising challenge, and the past, where students fight for their lives in the brutal Academy of Kindnesses. This seems like a simple enough set up, one that is familiar in many ways. But Lawrence took all of my expectations for how this formula would play out and tossed them straight out the window.

It was one major twist after another, to the point that by the halfway mark, I was careful not to take anything for granted. It was destabilizing in the best of ways. The problem with a format like this is that the future section could spoil events from the past. That is in no way the case here! This book is only the first entry, and sure, I can see where Rue has ended up, but I probably have even more questions than I started out with in regard to her life up to this point.

The characters were also fantastic. Of course, Rue is the main character, and her current POV chapters were sharp, poignant, and heartbreaking at various points. No punches are pulled about the realities of age and its effects on the body, but this juxtaposition between Rue’s physical state and her unkillable spirit only served to heighten the tension playing out in this timeline. Her story ends on a definite cliffhanger, and, like I said, by the time we reached this final page, I was left with only burning questions about not only what happened in her past but where the story was going to go from here. There were a few late-game reveals that truly ratcheted this up; the next book can’t come fast enough.

As for the other timeline, it’s harder to go into many details without spoiling some truly epic and surprising moments. It’s been a long time since I was truly as shocked as I was by a few of these twists and turns. Even by the time I had a better idea of the type of book I was reading, there were still swerves in the road that I wasn’t expecting.

I will say, I think the Academy was a brilliant interpretation of a very tired trope: the deadly school/trials plotline. We can all name a half dozen books like this off the top of our head at this point, and one of the biggest challenges for this trope is the premise. The author has to come up with a believable world/system in which a school with a death rate like this would be in any way believable or viable. Well, Lawrence knocked it out of the park. At every turn, there he was with an explanation behind the philosophy of the school, the greater role it plays in society, and the how/why of the people who participate within it.

Further, once we begin to follow students through the day-to-day life of the Academy, he doesn’t overplay his hand with the brutality. Instead, it lingers in the background, building a simmering sort of tension that then explodes at the most unexpected times. Instead of non-stop violence and death, the story focuses on the lives of the girls going through this grueling life. It was immersive in the best way, where I easily became invested in even some of the side characters involved. And, of course, this building of emotional stakes only highlights the horror and terror of the school when it hones in on the more brutal moments.

Beyond this, the story’s greater geopolitical world, its religions, its society, were all incredibly well done. While the true heroes of the story are its characters, the world-building effectively set the stage for the more grand conflicts that we can see simmering in the future.

So, yes. I loved this book. If you enjoy epic fantasy, this is a must-read for sure. You also better believe that Lawrence’s back catalog has taken a massive leap up my TBR list!

Rating 10: Brutal and heartbreaking; a must-read for all epic and grimdark fantasy readers!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Daughter of Crows” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2026 Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction and Most Anticipated Adult Fantasy & Sci-fi of 2026 (Standalones & New Series)

Fire’s Catching: “Mockingjay”

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It’s been eighteen years since Suzanne Collins wrote “The Hunger Games”, the smash hit literary sensation that continues to feel relevant and capture the attention of readers. This ongoing series will be a review series of both the Suzanne Collins books, as well as the film adaptations of the novels. I will post my review on the last Thursday of the month as we revisit the totalitarian world of Panem and the hope of the Mockingjay.

Book: “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins

Publishing Info: Scholastic Press, August 2010

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.

Review: We are now coming to the end of the initial “Hunger Games” Trilogy, and I finally took on the final book in the series “Mockingjay”. Much like “Catching Fire”, I skipped this book in my initial read because I was told that it wasn’t very good. Nay, I was told that it was boring. BORING. After finishing “Catching Fire” and really liking it, I knew that I would probably have a similar experience with this one. Little did I know that I would actually end up ranking it almost as high as the first book. Yeah, I loved “Mockingjay”. It destroyed me (probably thanks in part to listening to Tatiana Maslaney read it, God she was good). As we follow Katniss into her final arc of this saga, I was moved and on edge, even though I knew what was coming thanks to the movies. Suzanne Collins always has something to say. And this time, as we rejoin Katniss, newly whisked away from the wreckage and chaos of the destroyed arena, she is already so damaged and alone, with Peeta captured and Haymitch revealed as hiding the rebellion he helped force her into. Collins’s message this time: War is Hell, and no one comes out unchanged.

We get some new insight to some previous characters, and also meet new characters who become power players for the last book in the series. The biggest stand out for previous characters for me is Plutarch Heavensbee, the game maker for the Quarter Quell who was actually part of the rebellion the entire time. I love Plutarch, not because he’s a good guy (he’s not, really), but because I appreciate his goal of trying to overthrow Snow and the Capitol and think he’s very interesting because he is ruthless and willing to do a lot of bad to achieve his goals. We are also introduced to Alma Coin, the President of District 13, a long forgotten District that has been biding its time underground waiting for a spark of revolution so she can swoop in and help overthrow the Capitol. As Katniss worries about Peeta, who has been captured by the Capitol and is now being used in propaganda as the uprising turns into all out war, she is thrown into the role of being the Mockingjay leading a rebellion when she doesn’t know how to be a leader. It’s just a new situation where a teenage girl is being used by ambitious and power hungry adults for their own ends, and her mental health and PTSD is tossed aside as she is constantly pushed to the brink. Is she a bit more of a passive player in this one? Sure. But while that was used as a criticism by those around me, I actually think it makes complete sense. Katniss never wanted this and is still a child. Her struggles may seem repetitive but she is riddled with trauma. To portray it as anything other than messy and complicated would be unrealistic and, frankly, irresponsible.

I was also struck by how Collins makes it pretty clear from the jump that the Rebellion’s alliance with District 13 is a complicated, possibly even dangerous, one. Katniss is thrown into the depths of District 13’s underground bunker with its highly authoritarian society, finding out that it has been there the entire time living off the grid after striking a deal with the Capitol to be able to walk away in exchange for not using nuclear weapons against Snow’s regime (the absolute gall). We will talk more about the portrayal of 13 in the movies when we get to the film reviews, but in the book? I was immediately put off by President Coin and her government and its brutal ways, both towards its supporters and towards the people who have been pulled in from the rebellion as allies. Hell, EVERYTHING about 13 feels like its own nightmare, with no dissent allowed, dehumanization of anyone seen as collaborators (one instance with Katniss’s Prep Team, who feel like fish a barrel being shot for funsies, really disturbed me), and a very officious and scary power structure that Katniss is suspicious of while her closest friend Gale becomes more and more indoctrinated and into the totalitarian ethos that Coin is feeding him.

And I love that Collins was more than willing to portray that way that a war being fought can have horrific tactics from both sides, even the side that is ultimately more ‘in the right’, and this book really hits it home in the most devastating ways as Katniss has to be the face of a rebellion and to try and keep herself safe from Coin, who clearly wants her gone so she can take over and become the person with the power going forward. She is used as a tool by Coin and Heavensbee (I love the guy and his moral grey character, but man he’s a dick), only a means to an end because they know that Coin won’t cut it, and she is repeatedly victimized in hopes that she can just keep Peeta and Prim safe…and we all know what happens to Prim. Prim and the children of the Capitol, who all become targets of the ‘righteous’ side and are slaughtered to finally put down Snow’s regime in one final bombing… and it is sickening. Collins isn’t going to let the ‘correct’ side off, not only having Katniss’s side commit war crimes that are similar to her enemies, but also murder the person that she sacrificed everything for, almost making all of her suffering and purpose moot. GOD it’s so, so sad. It’s such a harsh truth that people forget all the time, that war, as a whole, is BAD, and ANYONE participating can do MONSTROUS things (even if they are on the side that is OBJECTIVELY more moral) because that is war at its heart. “Mockingjay” tells this truth by spilling more child blood, done by the side that the reader wants to succeed. Fuck Coin. But fuck Gale more. And Katniss is left to pick up the pieces. Again, war. Is. Hell.

The way I sobbed as this book was coming to a close. (source)

But then there is the rebirth. Because Katniss has to keep going. And Peeta has to keep going. The book ends with Panem starting a new path, and it feels hopeful, but tenuous. But for Katniss and Peeta, they have to keep moving forward, and rebuild, and the gentle aftermath of them slowly starting to do so is bittersweet to say the least. But it felt correct and satisfying. Collins doesn’t pretty it up. They are forever changed. They are forever haunted. Katniss and Peeta don’t get better just because they are free and their goals are achieved. But they keep going and find hope and happiness with each other. I know that there are people who hate that Katniss has kids in the future, thinking that it betrays her character because of her refusal to have kids in the first book. But to that I say, her and Peeta having kids is actually the best way to end it, because it shows that Katniss finally, FINALLY, can feel safe enough to live her life because the oppressive society she grew up in and helped overthrow is truly gone. It’s lovely.

I loved “Mockingjay”. It wasn’t flashy and it wasn’t cheerful. But it feels realistic to me in how it portrays trauma, war, and trying to start over after having experienced so much grief, and finding love and peace in spite of it. Next up I will review the first prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, where we go back to one of the first Hunger Games, and see the origins of President Coriolanus Snow.

Rating 9: A heavy and bittersweet conclusion to a series that still feels resonant, “Mockingjay” focuses on the hell that is war, the lingering affects of trauma, and picking up the pieces even in the wake of victory that may not feel wholly victorious.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mockingjay” is included on the Goodreads lists “Best Survival Stories”, and “YA Dystopia Novels”.

Serena’s Review: “The Library of Amorlin”

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Book: “The Library of Amorlin” by Kalyn Josephson

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Former con artist Kasira expected to spend her life as a soldier, miserably working off her prison sentence by hunting down magical creatures for the fanatical kingdom of Kalthos. But when the Kalish ambassador arrives with a non-negotiable assignment, Kasira finds herself swept into the biggest con of her life: infiltrating the Library of Amorlin. 

As the heart of all magic and the protector of magical creatures throughout the six kingdoms, the Library is historically politically neutral. Kasira is meant to pose as the new Assistant to spy for the ambassador and destabilize the Library from the inside, clearing the way to dethrone its Librarian. 

But when she arrives, Kasira learns that the Library is not all she was told it would be. Neither is the prickly, handsome Librarian, Allaster, whose own monstrous secrets are about to catch up with him. 

Swept into the enchanting world of the Library, Kasira’s reluctant con is jeopardized by her growing affection for the wondrous life the Library promises…and by her complicated, burgeoning attraction to Allaster. As the ambassador’s game closes in, Kasira must decide where her loyalties lie: to her newfound home, or to her own survival? 

Review: This book started off strong, introducing a dynamic world, an action-oriented main character, and a compelling plot centered around a long con at which Kasira must succeed if she has any hopes of retaining her freedom. As the book continued, I did run into a few struggles, but let’s start with some of those pros first.

As I said, the beginning of this book was fantastic, especially as an introduction to this world. I loved much of the world-building going on here, especially with regard to the magical creatures/monsters and the various ways they are regarded by the nations of this world. In particular, there are the Kalish, who fanatically view the monsters as the source of all evil in the world. When we meet our main character, she has been strong-armed into a sort of mercenary crew that spends its time combing the forests with the sole purpose of locating and killing monsters. Enter the heartbreaking scene of brutality that the book opens on. But as sad as some of this was, it was also a great way to establish the stakes of the situation. On the other hand, there is the Library, located at the center of this land and the one place dedicated to the protection of monsters and the keepers of magic. The Kalish, of course, hate this, and this then sets up the stakes of the undercover mission to take it down from the inside.

There was a lot to like about this set-up, and the book moved quickly to get Kasira in place to move this plot forward. But, sadly, it was here where the book began to run into problems. There were a couple of things that stood out. Here, once the action begins to settle down a bit more, I quickly realized that regardless of the information I had been given about Kasira and her backstory, I wasn’t connecting with her as a character. Instead, she felt like she was pieced together by these facts from her past but was here, in the present, completely devoid of any personality or actual characterization. In a word, she lacked voice.

Further, I quickly became frustrated with the actual premise of the story. We were given the reasons for Kasira agreeing to pull off this con, but the story wastes no time laying down tons of groundwork proving how utterly disastrous it would be if she succeeded. If I had to give Kasira a character trait, it would be something like “goal-oriented to the point of blindness,” which isn’t exactly a stellar point in her favor. Her focus and motivation were so internal that it began to feel disingenuous when put up against the stakes that began piling up.

I also felt like the MMC was very underutilized. We are given just enough to pique the interest, but, again, never enough for him to fully feel like a character in his own right. It felt like his scenes were sprinkled only sparsely throughout the book, and I was always left wishing we could get just a bit more from him.

All of this said, I think the writing itself was strong, and there were a lot of great ideas here. I think the weaknesses really come down to the characterization of the main character and, to a lesser extent, the MMC. However, if you’re looking for a new fantasy con artist book, this might be one to check out!

Rating 7: Lots of creative world-building to be found here, but the main character suffered from a critical lack of personality.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Library of Amorlin” can be found on these Goodreads lists: 2026 Fantasy Romance/Romantasy books to look forward to and Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2026

Kate’s Review: “Nothing Tastes As Good”

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Book:”Nothing Tastes As Good” by Luke Dumas

Publishing Info: Atria Books, March 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

I’m an elder millennial, so I was a teenager around that Y2K time when heroin chic bodies were in and they were calling Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson fat when they had perfectly svelte bodies. And yeah, it absolutely affected me. Story time! When I was a freshman in college I had to go to the student health center for positional vertigo, and while I was being examined the doctor told me that I was at 140 pounds (probably due to not having lunch in my meal plan, not really having snacks, and walking around the U of MN Duluth campus basically all day). This was the lightest I had been in years, and the doctor said that at 5’9″ and with my frame I was actually bordering towards underweight. And in my mind I was like ‘AWESOME!!! Underweight!!!!’ instead of ‘hmm, that may be an issue’. I’m still not really at peace with my body (decades later, hitting perimenopause, and after having a kid), but I’m trying to be at least more neutral about it. Especially since I now have a six year old daughter who has already told me that she didn’t want to wear her winter jacket because it makes her ‘look fat’. I had a lot of these thoughts swirling in my head as I read “Nothing Tastes As Good” by Luke Dumas, which takes diet culture, corporate greed, a little bit of MAHA ideals about body presentation, and throws it in a “The Substance” flavored blender. It’s gross, it’s upsetting, and it’s a really good horror read. More so given that we’re starting to see these really thin trends coming back.

As a body horror book, this one has a lot of nasty and stomach churning moments. I already have a fair amount of squick when it comes to body horror (I actually still haven’t seen “The Substance” outside of clips here and there before I feel like I may barf), and it’s not just because of the weird thing Emmett Truesdale’s body is doing whilst participating in a drug trial for a product called Obexity. It sure seems like a miracle drug as the pounds start to fall off in record time, and Emmett is more than happy to ignore the side effects because of his new body making his self perception and the perception of others so much more positive. But I’m sure that you can imagine that the side effects get worse and worse and crazier and crazier, and there is gore, there are weird body moments, and I was squirming a bit as I kept reading and the pounds kept dropping. I enjoyed the slow burn suspense, with the story being told through a fairly typical narrative, but also through Emmett’s body transformation discovery blog, through interviews after SOMETHING happens, and through notes and other hints from news articles and the pharmaceutical notes as the study goes on. And some descriptions were just so gross, but it’s exactly what I would expect from this kind of horror tale.

Dumas also has some really interesting and pointed commentary about how society views fat people and fat bodies, and clearly has a lot to say about how Emmett is treated throughout the narrative, be it while he is dropping pounds while on Obexity (with the aforementioned side effects wreaking havoc but being brushed away), or how he is treated during his time as a child whose disordered eating can be mapped due to trauma cycles done to him or even to his caregivers before him (specifically his stepfather), or even when he is yo-yoing and reminiscing about losing weight then gaining it all back and then some before the drug trial. I imagine that a lot of this is familiar to those who have struggled with disordered eating or body image issues, and Dumas doesn’t really mince words when showing how dehumanized Emmett feels when he is fat, and how the very fact he is actually seen and treated as a human being when he is thinner propels his desperation to stay on a drug that is making him do horrifying things out of his control. It’s scathing and a clear indictment on fatphobia from ALL fronts, be it family, friends, lovers, strangers, or even medical professionals, where someone is more comfortable being monstrous if they are at least treated like a human. Oof. It was rough.

“Nothing Tastes As Good” is an effective commentary and doesn’t hold back with the squirmy bits you want in a body horror tale.

Rating 8: A nasty and unnerving body horror tale that has a lot of insightful points about fatphobia in society.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Nothing Tastes As Good” is included on the Goodreads lists “Beauty Parlor of Horror”, and “Weird Lit”.

Book Club Review: “Girls Made of Snow and Glass”


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We are part of a group of librarian friends who have had an ongoing book club running for the last several years. Each “season” (we’re nerds) we pick a theme and each of us chooses a book within that theme for us all to read. Re-visiting some of our past themes, we’re once again pulling random words from and finding a book that matches the prompts. For this blog, we will post a joint review of each book we read for book club. We’ll also post the next book coming up in book club. So feel free to read along with us or use our book selections and questions in your own book club!

Book: “Girls Made of Snow and Glass” by Melissa Bashardoust

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, September 2017

Where Did We Get This Book: The library!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Prompt Words: Snow, Spell

Book Description: Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, “Girls Made of Snow and Glass” traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Kate’s Thoughts

I remember this book crossing my path back when it came out, and while the idea of a “Snow White” reimagining definitely piqued my interest I ultimately never picked it up. Because of this I cackled a bit when it was picked for book club because apparently it was my fate to eventually read this book. I have enjoyed a fair amount of “Snow White” retellings if done well, and I liked the sound of this one because it sounded like it was going to have a bit more insight into the Queen’s motivations. Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had for it.

I did enjoy the way that Bashardoust approached the relationship between Lynet (our Snow White) and Mina (our evil queen/stepmother). It’s not so often that a reimagining of this story actually tries to create a somewhat positive relationship, or at least the potential for one, between these two characters, and by doing so and making Lynet and Mina more victims of their circumstances (put in place by their fathers) and less mortal enemies, though there is certainly conflict there. It was a unique way to tackle a reimagining, and this was the strongest aspect of the book for me.

But on the other hand, there was a lot of not so complex and somewhat fraught storytelling as we saw Lynet and Mina go on their paths in the narrative. I felt like we didn’t really get a good sense of their relationships with the other characters, even those that would be pretty important, and I felt like the magical systems and their magical afflictions (Mina being made of glass and Lynet being made of snow) were very surface level without much substance. Are they metaphors that could be interesting, sure, but when they are just there to be obvious metaphors it isn’t as compelling as it could be.

So there was a lot of potential and some solid character beats, but overall “Girls Made of Snow and Glass” was pretty middle of the road.

Serena’s Thoughts

On paper, this book should have been right up my alley. And it did work in some ways, just not in all the ways that I wanted. Its biggest positive is the creative take it offers on the “Snow White” tale. This included an elaborate (if a bit confused and badly defined) magic system, a dual perspective shared between the Queen and the Snow White character, and a refocus of the primary relationship away from the romances and more fully on this mother/daughter relationship.

This last part, especially, was particularly well done. It’s rare that you see the major emotional stakes of a YA fantasy story focused on the relationship between two women, especially when one is in a mother/stepmother role. On the other hand, this left the romances feeling very underwhelming. It also felt weighted toward Mina’s relationship, leaving the sapphic love story between Lynet and her love interest feeling fairly weak.

My major problem came down to the writing. It wasn’t bad, by any means. But it was also incredibly dry and simple. There wasn’t much of a voice given to either character, and the author was quick to fall into the trap of telling the readers exactly how they should interpret any given scene. While the themes of beauty, independence, and feminine rage were interesting, none of them were presented or surfaced in anything resembling a subtle way.

So, ultimately, I didn’t dislike this book, but I also had hoped to enjoy it much more than I did. I really love fairytale retellings, but this felt very much “of its time,” a time when YA fantasy especially was given to underestimating its readers and relying on overly simplistic storytelling techniques.

Kate’s Rating 6 : I definitely appreciated the deconstruction of the Snow White and Evil Queen relationship in this book, but I felt like the storytelling wasn’t as focused as I would have liked it to be.

Serena’s Rating 7: While I appreciated the focus on the relationship between Mina and Lynet, the storytelling itself left much to be desired.

Book Club Questions

  1. This is a Snow White retelling that jumps through timelines and through perspectives of both the Snow White character and the Evil Queen character. Were you able to follow it as it jumped between times and perspectives?
  2. What did you think of the father/daughter relationships in this story?
  3. What were your thoughts on the relationship between Lynet and Mina? Was it surprising you to you that Bashardoust went in this direction?
  4. What were your thoughts on Felix? How did he compare to other Huntsmen portrayals?
  5. What did you think of the way the concepts of snow and glass were used as metaphors in this novel? Did it work for you? Why or why not?
  6. Did you have any opinions on the magical systems in this book? Did they seem consistent, and did they make sense?
  7. How did you feel about the ending? Was it satisfying?

Reader’s Advisory

“Girls Made of Snow and Glass” is included on the Goodreads lists 2017 YA Fairy Tale Retellings and YA Fantasy with Major Sapphic Girls.

Next Book Club Pick: “Space Cat” by Nnedi Okorafor

Serena’s Review: “Only Spell Deep”

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Book: “Only Spell Deep” by Ava Morgyn

Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Griffin, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Judeth Cole has always had certain uncanny abilities. But when she arrived at Solidago – her grandfather’s estate by the sea – she was forced to keep them secret. There she lived a harsh life under his rule and the haunting legacy of her late grandmother, Aurelia. Until the fateful day she ignited a fire with her magic. It was the last time she saw her family alive.

Seventeen years later, she’s living in Seattle as Jude Clark, and failing at life, when she makes a last detour through her favorite bookstore, selecting a book to read as she waits to die. But when she pulls it from the shelf, an invitation to her for a clandestine midnight meeting slips out.

Jude is quickly swept up into a world of secrets and magic, discovering a circle of powerful new companions led by the mysterious, enigmatic Arla. The source of their magic, Arla tells her, is a goddess, trapped and bound, that they call The Fathom. But Jude swiftly realizes Arla wants this power all to herself, and that she’s willing to kill for it.

Terrified, Jude turns to Levi Orman, the handsome bookseller who’s seen her at her worst. With his help, she begins a research journey that leads her from the crystal waters of the Mediterranean to the icy waves of the Greenland Sea and back to Solidago, the house she swore to never return to. With the Fathom threatening to break free and Arla on the hunt, Jude must finally face her past to save her future.

Review: I’ve read a few books by this author, and while none of them have blown my socks off, they’ve also been solid fantasy reads. I don’t read too many contemporary fantasy novels, so Morgyn has been a good option for keeping a toe in the waters of that particular subgenre. This one stood out for its comparisons to Rebecca and the promise of another gothic read.

So, this was a bit of a mixed-bag read for me. On one hand, I do see the comparisons to Rebecca, but that mostly coincides with some basic staples of gothic fiction. Sure, there’s specifically a fire, but I’m not sure this is quite enough to justify this comparison. On the other hand, I did enjoy the gothic elements we got here. I wish there had been a bit more done with them, but the atmosphere of this book was one of its primary high points.

The pacing was pretty unsteady, however. It started off strong, and I was immediately drawn in and invested in the character and story. Things were happening, the plot was moving, tension was building. But then it felt like the book ran headlong into a brick wall somewhere around the one-third mark and then was mired there for a good chunk of the middle. Yes, the ending once again picked up the pace, and things concluded on a high note. But this middle section dragged.

On paper, this is the section where I should have been becoming more invested in the characters and the romance, as much of the page time was devoted to dialogue and smaller moments. But somehow the balance always felt off between description and action, and I found myself losing interest more and more often.

Further, one of the elements I enjoyed about the fantasy portion of the story were the Goddesses who were introduced. Instead of languishing in prolonged research during this middle portion, I wish the book had devoted more time to fleshing out this part of the story. There were a lot of interesting ideas here, but by the end of the book, I was left with questions and wishing we had gotten more from this particular avenue.

I was also fairly lukewarm on the characters and the romance as a whole. Readers should definitely not go into this expecting much from the romance. It is very secondary to anything else, and I didn’t find it particularly compelling. The main character had a more interesting arc, but even here, there were several themes that were thrown in that felt almost like they were there simply for the shock factor rather than to be truly dealt with in a meaningful way.

Overall, this was just an OK read. I really enjoyed the beginning and the ending, and I thought there were some interesting fantasy elements, particularly the Goddesses. But the pacing was uneven to the point that the middle of the book lagged badly, and the romance felt almost unnecessary for the amount of attention it got in the end. Fans of this author will likely be pleased, but it didn’t quite work for me.

Rating 7: It’s an odd thing for me when the love story feels like the part that doesn’t quite fit. Some interesting fantasy concepts are held back by uneven pacing, as well.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Only Spell Deep” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Best Magical Realism: Witchy Fiction and Fire Burn And Cauldron Bubble.

Kate’s Review: “The Darkness Greeted Her”

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Book: “The Darkness Greeted Her” by Christina Ferko

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, February 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Penny’s abusive father is dead…but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can’t go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood—an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.

She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can’t possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor…a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it’s clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn’t all in her head.

As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

I had a LOT of emotional issues when I was a teenager. I had three separate therapists addressing different parts of my mental health, was on medication for a couple of years, and have been in therapy throughout most of my life (and I am incredibly grateful to have had all that access to these things over the years). I never got to the point where I was in need of intensive in patient therapy, and I certainly never found myself shipped off to a wilderness therapy camp that has secrets and perhaps a roving monster in the woods. So while THAT aspect of “The Darkness Greeted Her” by Christina Ferko wasn’t super relatable, the mental health aspects were (at least to some degree, it was NEVER as all encompassing for me as it was for main character Penny).

The biggest theme of his horror novel, as so many horror tales have done in recent years (and I’m not mad about it!), is how people who have gone through traumatizing childhoods are shaped and haunted by said trauma. For Penny and her camp mates, they all come to Camp Whitewood with the hopes of finding peace and psychological help, but instead are being tormented and in some cases eaten by a monstrous entity in the woods that takes the shape of their fears and pain. Old hat? Sure. But for me it’s still effective, and I think that it’s always something to be talked about for YA readers and a message I probably could have used as a depressed teenager back in the day. But not only did we get insight into our first person protagonist’s trauma, I also liked getting some chapters that would lay out the formative moments that brought that other girls to this therapy camp. So we do have a shadow creature living in the woods that is a threat, but at the same time we have a number of teenagers who have dealt with all too real horrors, like abusive alcoholic fathers, guilt over horrible mistakes that have become internalized to a dangerous degree, and other traumas that have festered and caused these girls to be susceptible to the monster’s appetites.

In terms of the suspense and dread, I will say that some of the pacing felt a bit off, and perhaps at times a bit too drawn out. It wasn’t a particularly scary story to me, but that is almost assuredly a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation because there are definitely some creepy and suspenseful aspects, especially with the worries about whether or not Penny was going to be overcome by her Harm OCD tendencies and hurt someone else or herself. The monster was interesting in that it shifts its form to reflect the different campers fears, mixing in folk horror with “Nightmare on Elm Street” to a degree (it also got a little close to Wendigo mythology, but didn’t use the term or the specific background so I feel like it wasn’t fully treading into appropriative territory, correct me if I’m wrong though!). The metaphors of trauma and mental illness bolstered it up quite a bit.

So all in all, “The Darkness Greeted Her” is another solid horror story that makes monsters out of real life horror stories. I think that teenage horror fans will probably enjoy it.

Rating 7: A creepy story about trauma and monsters, of the supernatural and all too human kind, though it felt a bit laggy at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Darkness Greeted Her” is included on the Goodreads list “Queer Fiction Set at Camp”.

Serena’s Review: “Green and Deadly Things”

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Book: “Green and Deadly Things” by Jenn Lyons

Publishing Info: Tor, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Mathaiik has trained all his life to join the sacred order of the Idallik Knights, charged with defending their world from the forces of necromancy. Only vestiges of that cursed magic remain, nothing like the fabled days of the Grim Lords, the undead wizards who once nearly destroyed the world.

But when an even stranger kind of monster begins to wake, the Knights quickly prove powerless to stop them. Whole forests are coming alive and devouring anyone so foolish as to trespass, as if the land itself has turned upon humanity.

It’s a good thing, then, that the Grim Lords were never truly destroyed. One of their number sleeps below the Knights’ very fortress. And when an army of twisted tree monsters attacks the young initiates in his charge, Math decides to do the unthinkable: he wakes her up.

This is only the beginning of his problems. Because said necromancer, Kaiataris, knows something history has forgotten. The threat of this wild magic is part of a cycle that has repeated countless times–life after death, chaos after order. And if she and Math can’t find a new way to balance the scales, this won’t just be the end of the world as they know it, but the end of all life, everywhere.

Review:I feel like deadly, horrific plants have been having a bit of a moment in horror and fantasy recently. I can think of a number of titles that have played around with this concept, all horrifying in their own ways. And this book starts off with more of the same! A walking, murderous forest, and not in the “Cool! Look at the Ents!” kind of way.

From there, the world-building just expands, and I loved learning more about this world. Math is a great entry point, having grown up in an order of Knights meant to fight evil necromancers, but with his feet on both sides of the magical divide, with his own secret plant magic. And even here, with the good guy of the book, the ways in which his plant magic is described… yeah, pretty gross. But also very cool, especially as the lore of this world explodes outward once he raises one of the long-thought-defeated necromancers of old and realizes there is much more to this world than he thought.

This reveal was one of the coolest factors of the book, and it immediately shifted not only the stakes of the conflict but also revealed some truths about Math and everything he thought he knew. Kai was also a fantastic character, bringing in a wealth of knowledge. She and Math had great chemistry, and I enjoyed the push-and-pull nature of their growing trust. It was very much a “two steps forward, one step backward” affair with these two.

Some of the late reveals I felt were a bit more predictable. And there definitely came a point when I wanted to smack Math upside the head to get with the real program going on here. But, even with that being the case, his perspectives and priorities made sense for him as a character, so I wasn’t overly frustrated by it.

The one drawback was the pacing. The story starts off incredibly quickly and does a neat job of setting up the primary players and the situation ahead. But then, toward the middle, the story started to drag. Math and Kai spend a lot of time traveling, always interrupted by the fairly predictable return of some bad guys to get in their way. While I was interested in the greater evil that was building in the background, some of these more minor action scenes began to feel repetitive. At the same time, Math and Kai’s relationship also stuttered a bit in the middle, so it was a bit of a struggle to retain interest during this portion.

However, things picked up again, and by the end, I was once again invested in what was taking place. It’s also refreshing to read a stand-alone fantasy novel with a story that feels contained and complete. Readers who are looking for a unique action fantasy story should definitely give this one a go!

Rating 8: While the middle portion lagged a bit, the creepy plant magic and endearing characters kept me invested throughout!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Green and Deadly Things” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Can’t Wait Books of 2026 and Horror to Look Forward to in 2026.

Kate’s Review: “You Did Nothing Wrong”

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Book: “You Did Nothing Wrong” by C.G. Drews

Publishing Info: St Martin’s Press, March 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A relentless, horror-inducing psychological suspense for fans of The Push and Baby Teeth by New York Times bestselling author CG Drews.

Single mother Elodie’s life has become a fairy tale. She’s met Bren, equal parts golden-retriever devoted and sinfully handsome. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, to the crumbling family house he’s renovating. She has a new husband, a new house, and a new baby on the way. Everything is perfect.

Then Jude claims he can hear voices in the walls. He says their renovations are “hurting” the house. Even Elodie can’t ignore it–something strange is going on. The question is, is it with the house, or with her son?

Then the one secret Elodie has been hiding is revealed, and no one is safe anymore.

A pulse-pounding, clever take on the haunted house novel, You Did Nothing Wrong examines the complexities of motherhood and the twisted bonds of family as it races to its shocking ending.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

We are getting some interesting subversions of the haunted house horror sub-genre recently! I love a haunted house story, but I’ve been pretty pleased with the way that authors have been experimenting with the themes that come with the sub-genre. “You Did Nothing Wrong” definitely falls into that category, because something that starts off seeming like just a ghostly tale turns into something even scarier than things that go bump in the night.

Whew, this book is intense for so many different reasons. We follow Elodie, a young mother to an autistic six year old named Jude (more on him in a bit) who has just married Bren, and is pregnant again. They move into a new house that Bren is trying to fix up, but Jude keeps talking about how the house is alive. And Elodie starts seeing strange things too. This is one layer of the tension, because Drews also throws in hints and clues to Elodie’s past, which carry a whole lot of darkness even if they aren’t apparent from the jump. Elodie is a narrator that I would shift between wanting to root for, to being completely horrified by, and I never quite knew if she was someone I could trust as a protagonist. But I had the same thing happen with Bren, who on the surface seems so kind and patient and doting, but has little flashes of menace and aggression. But then again, is that actually the case, or is it because we see what Elodie sees? As the story goes on and the tension between Elodie and Bren escalates, mostly because she also thinks she’s seeing things in the house AND because Bren is potentially abusing or manipulating Jude. As the story goes on Elodie gets more unhinged, but is she paranoid? Or is it something else altogether? Drews kept me guessing a good long time, and I was tearing through this book desperate to find out what happened next.

Another stressful point is the themes with Jude, who is presumed to be autistic based on how he is written, but who hasn’t been diagnosed because Elodie refuses to do so in case it is somehow blamed on her. As someone who has a child who is presumed autistic, there were beats in here that felt very familiar, either due to the way that some people just refuse to understand some of the more uncomfortable things about autistic people, or the way that things can go south in the blink of an eye without necessarily knowing why because your kid doesn’t really know why either. You add in a possessive obsession she has to her child and it makes it all the more intense. But then again, I was ALSO freaking out at Bren because I was so afraid that he was going to hurt Jude due to HIS misconceptions about how to treat an autistic child. It made me so uncomfortable but I’m pretty sure that was the point. Gosh I just wanted to sweep Jude up.

I do think that the ending had a few too many shocks and surprises, however. I’ve never been one to get behind a thriller novel that has a lot of last minute twists just to get a rise out of the reader, and while this book still stands very well on its own two feet due to the things I mentioned, I do think that there was a bit of an overreach when it comes to how things all shook out by the end.

But that’s a quibble in the long run, because overall I greatly enjoyed “You Did Nothing Wrong”. It kept me stressed out and it kept me flipping the pages whenever I had a chance. I definitely recommend it.

Rating 8: An addictive horror tale with unreliable narration and incredibly tense moments flies high for awhile, but has a slight petering out of an ending.

Reader’s Advisory:

“You Did Nothing Wrong” is included on the Goodreads lists “Autism in Horror Literature”, and “Dark Literature”.

Diving Into Sub-Genres: Werewolf Fantasy

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We each have our own preferred genres of choice. Kate loves horrors and thrillers, really anything that will keep her up at night! And Serena enjoys escaping through hidden doors into realms of magic and adventure. We also read mysteries, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc. etc. And that’s not even counting the multitude of sub-genres contained within each greater genre. In this series, one of us will present a list of our favorites from within a given sub-genre of one of our greater preferred genres.

I am once again copying Kate’s theme! She’s did vampire horror, I did vampire fantasy. She did werewolf horror, I did…well, you get the idea. But it truly is funny seeing the places where horror and fantasy overlap. For this reason, Kate and I have had some good luck find authors who write books that we both can appreciate, perhaps for different reasons.

So, unlike werewolves in horror, werewolves in fantasy are often paired with romance. I’m sure there are exceptions, but it’s hard to think of any! Beyond this, there’s always a decent chance that the main character will also end up being a werewolf and the concept will be explored from an insider perspective. Werewolves in fantasy often have much more control over their “curse” than the ones you’d see in horror; more often than not, it’s just another magical power rather than something that has any true downside. They’re also more likely to show up in urban/paranormal fantasy than a straight fantasy novel.

So, let’s get to the list!

“Blood and Chocolate” by Annette Curtis Klause

Thinking back, this may have been the first werewolf book I ever read. I have clear memories of checking it out from the library and whizzing through it. Now, with many years and many other werewolf books under my belt, it still stands out as one of the more unique version of the werewolf story I’ve come across. Mostly this comes down to the way that the romance was handled. I remember being completely shocked by the direction this book took in the end, and I think even now, it subverts some expectations that readers would have going in. Alas, this was then made into a movie where the director completely butchered it. I mean, actually butchered it! Totally changed the ending, undoing all that made the book stand out as unique and depriving the heroine of the conclusion to her personal arch. Truly tragic stuff. So, yes. Read the book but do not, I repeat, DO NOT, watch the movie.

“Written in Red” by Anne Bishop

While this series had a fairly steep and disappointing decline towards the final few books, it stands out for having one of the more unique versions of werewolves in fantasy. The book manages to straddle both the urban fantasy genre as well as a more straight, second-world fantasy novel. In this world, the Others are powerful magical creatures (including werewolves) and the humans are very much living at the grace of these beings. The first few books are particularly strong, following the main character Meg and the very beginnings of her romance with the resident werewolf leader of her small corner of the world.

“Moon Called” by Patricia Briggs

There are a bunch of urban/paranormal fantasy series out there that feature werewolves. I can probably name half a dozen off the top of my head. But I think one of the most popular has been the “Mercy Thomas” series by Patricia Briggs. Mercy herself is a coyote shifter, but her romantic interest(s) are both werewolves. Much of it is stand werewolf fare, but as the series progresses, we get more lore about werewolf society and the role they play in the supernatural society, as well as the “real world.” There’s also a companion series called the “Alpha and Omega” series that features a female werewolf, so if this series is up your alley, there’s more to be had from this world featuring a main character werewolf to boot!

“Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater

At this point, this author is best known by her “Raven Cycle” series. But before she had that, she produced this interesting YA werewolf series! Given how much creativity was present in the “Raven Cycle” series, it should come as no surprise that Stiefvater also brought a lot of creativity to her interpretation of werewolves. Here, the change between wolf and human is determined by the temperature, not phases of the moon. That being the case, Sam, our werewolf character, is doomed to be wolf for large chunks of each year, with only a few summer months of life as a human boy. And, of course, there’s also Grace, the young woman who meets Sam as a boy but who suspects a similarity between him and a yellow-eyed wolf she’s seen in the woods.

“The Last Werewolf” by Glen Duncan

Up to this point, most of these books have had fairly tame versions of werewolves, especially as compared to their horror compatriots. But here, Duncan gives a fantasy version of werewolves that doesn’t shy away from the violent, chaotic existence that would be life as a werewolf. This book is definitely on the dark side and is more literary than the other picks as well, so if you’re a fantasy reader who leans in that direction, this would be a good one to check out. It also features a male werewolf as the lead character, which also feels a bit unique compared to other titles on this list so far.

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling

Granted, werewolves are way down the list of important fantasy tropes in this series, but I thought to include it because it’s one of the few truly negative-only versions of werewolves in fantasy I have on this list. There’s no upside to being a werewolf in this world; we see Lupin not only struggle with the effects of the transformation itself, but also with the bigotry of this world towards werewolf. As the series continues, a villain werewolf is introduced and is portrayed as one of the more horrific enemies out of many horrific options. Lupin also continues to struggle with his own life choices and the realities of his curse. So, not a central part of the series, but this is definitely a different version of werewolves in fantasy than we’ve seen in the other books on this list.

What werewolf fantasy books have you enjoyed over the years? Let us know in the comments!