Tag: 6 Rating

Book Club Review: “The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne”

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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. Our current theme is Centuries, where we were given a random century and had to pick a book based during that time period.  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: “The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne” by Elsa Hart

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, August 2020

Where Did We Get This Book: The library!

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

Century: 18th

Book Description: London, 1703. In a time when the old approaches to science coexist with the new, one elite community attempts to understand the world by collecting its wonders. Sir Barnaby Mayne, the most formidable of these collectors, has devoted his life to filling his cabinets. While the curious-minded vie for invitations to study the rare stones, bones, books, and artifacts he has amassed, some visitors come with a darker purpose.

For Cecily Kay, it is a passion for plants that brings her to the Mayne house. The only puzzle she expects to encounter is how to locate the specimens she needs within Sir Barnaby’s crowded cabinets. But when her host is stabbed to death, Cecily finds the confession of the supposed killer unconvincing. She pays attention to details—years of practice have taught her that the smallest particulars can distinguish a harmless herb from a deadly one—and in the case of Sir Barnaby’s murder, there are too many inconsistencies for her to ignore.

To discover the truth, Cecily must enter the world of the collectors, a realm where intellect is distorted by obsession and greed. As her pursuit of answers brings her closer to a killer, she risks being given a final resting place amid the bones that wait, silent and still, in ‘THE CABINETS OF BARNABY MAYNE’.

Kate’s Thoughts

When I worked at the Science Museum of Minnesota, my main gallery was known as the Collections Gallery, which was kind of a mish mash of items on display that didn’t really fit in anywhere else in the museum. We had artifacts from around the world, a few taxidermied animals, some rocks and minerals and sands on display, some items from quack medical practices, and a literal mummy. I loved working in this gallery and a few of my best friends were people who worked there with me. So with my affection for this kind of collection oddity made me very interested in reading “The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne”, as the idea of a weird collector with a bunch of cabinets filled with random stuff is very much my wheelhouse.

Well, sadly this book didn’t really gel with me. I am not sure what went wrong, as the collection of oddities is great, I love a historical mystery, and I am always game to read a story in a time period I’m not as familiar with (early 1700s? I can’t think of any other books off the top of my head that I have read that are set during that time frame). I am pretty certain that it is just a matter of Your Mileage May Vary, or just not being in the right mind space, but combining some of the more ‘in time period’ language and the cast of suspects all being pretty similar and not very interesting to me, I wasn’t as enthralled with this book. I did like the banter between Cecily and her friend Meacan, and having two women being the main investigators was also enjoyable. But I think that the mystery itself just didn’t catch my attention too well.

If you like cozy mysteries and you like period pieces that perhaps aren’t as covered as much in the genre, this could be a good fit for you! It just didn’t do much for me.

Serena’s Thoughts

I’m much more the sort of reader who would go for this sort of book than Kate, so it’s probably not a surprise that I enjoyed it a bit more. That said, I also didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to, so we have a bit of a mixed bag review headed your way. On one hand, I’m very into historical mysteries like this and there were a lot of aspects of this novel that felt fresh when compared to other entries in this subgenre. For example, while I’ve read a million and one Victorian or Regency period historical mysteries, I haven’t read one set in the early 1700s before. That being the case, I enjoyed the exploration of this tenuous point in history in which much of natural science was still very recent and felt almost as mystical as magic itself. I also enjoyed the two main characters, and this was another point in this book’s favor. Not only have the previous books I’ve read that are similar to this all feature a man/woman duo (often with romantic tension of some sort), but here we had two women who were simply friends and nothing more. It was nice to see a different kind of relationship put at the forefront, and like Kate, I enjoyed the interactions between these two the most of anything during my reading experience.

That said, I also agree with some of her criticisms. Like any good mystery, there were a whole host of potential suspects. The problem was that many of them began to run together in my mind, feeling indistinct from each other and each struggling to capture my attention. I also felt that the pacing of the mystery itself was a bit off. More than once, the plot seemed to offer up convenient answers right away to whatever questions our heroines were currently struggling to answer. It felt less like they were solving a mystery and more like they were simply following a very clear breadcrumb trail to its inevitable conclusion.

Overall, I thought this book was ok. It delivers on the core concepts that readers of this subgenre are often looking for, and even brings in a few new areas of interest. However, nothing really rose to the top for me as I read. The heroines, the villains, the mystery itself: serviceable, but not necessarily very memorable.

Kate’s Rating 5: I liked the concept of an oddity collection and I liked exploring this time period, but for whatever reason this one didn’t really click with me.

Serena’s Rating 7: With some interesting new concepts, this will likely appeal to historical mystery readers, though I do think their is room for growth with regards to characterization and the pacing of the mystery itself.

Book Club Questions

  1. This book takes place in the English countryside in the early 1700s. Did the setting feel authentic to you?
  2. What were your thoughts on the portrayals of a society that is just starting to delve into the scientific process?
  3. Did Cecily’s motivation to solve the murder of Barnaby Maybe seem plausible?
  4. Did you like Meacan as a foil to Cecily?
  5. What were your thoughts on the motivations revealed by various players for their various actions throughout the story? How about the motivations of the murderer?
  6. What did you think of Alice’s character?
  7. Do you buy into the Agatha Christie comparisons to this novel? Do you agree or disagree?

Reader’s Advisory

“The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne” is included on the Goodreads list “Historical Mystery 2020”.

Next Book Club Pick: “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” by Elizabeth George Speare

Kate’s Review: “Dead Girls Walking”

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Book: “Dead Girls Walking” by Sami Ellis

Publishing Info: Amulet Books, March 2024

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 shocking, spine-chilling YA horror slasher about a girl searching for her dead mother’s body at the summer camp that was once her serial killer father’s home—perfect for fans of Friday the 13th and White Smoke.

Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point Killer, an infamous serial killer known for how he marked each of his victims with a brand. He was convicted for murdering 20 people and was the talk of countless true crime blogs for years. Some say he was possessed by a demon. Some say that they never found all his victims. Some say that even though he’s now behind bars, people are still dying in the woods. Despite everything though, Temple never believed that her dad killed her mom. But when he confesses to that crime while on death row, she has no choice but to return to his old hunting grounds to try see if she can find a body and prove it.

Turns out, the farm that was once her father’s hunting grounds and her home has been turned into an overnight camp for queer, horror-obsessed girls. So Temple poses as a camp counselor to go digging in the woods. While she’s not used to hanging out with girls her own age and feels ambivalent at best about these true crime enthusiasts, she tries her best to fit in and keep her true identity hidden.

But when a girl turns up dead in the woods, she fears that one of her father’s “fans” might be mimicking his crimes. As Temple tries to uncover the truth and keep the campers safe, she comes to realize that there may be something stranger and more sinister at work—and that her father may not have been the only monster in these woods.

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

There are a number of known truths in my world, and one of those truths is that if you make a reference to “Friday the 13th” in relation to another movie plot or story, I’m going to be automatically interested. I have a special place in my heart for Jason Voorhees and those pretty not great but super campy and gory slasher movies, so much so that my Terror Tuesday friend group is slowly working our way through the movie series as group member Michael had never seen any of them. Because of my love, when I was browsing NetGalley for upcoming horror novels, I was immediately intrigued by “Dead Girls Walking” by Sami Ellis. It not only dropped “Friday the 13th” in its description, but also “White Smoke” by Tiffany D. Jackson, one of my favorite horror authors. These two things and a very eye catching cover made me pretty excited to read this book. Which means I was a bit bummed when it didn’t quite rise to the occasion.

But as always I will start with the good! I will say right off that this harkens less to “Friday the 13th” (outside of the summer camp setting) and more to the original “Evil Dead” when it comes to the scares. Which is a-okay with me, because I love both of those franchises but “Evil Dead” isn’t seen nearly as much when it comes to general cultural references to gory slasher and horror films, whereas I feel like even those who don’t know horror are familiar with Jason Voorhees at least in passing. Ellis knows how to craft a horror casualty that feels like it’s coming from a gory slasher movie, and I could definitely visualize those moments in all their bloody glory.

I do love a gorefest at times. (source)

I also really liked how Ellis has paid something of an homage to a sub-genre that is, very often and certainly during its heydey, a very white, cis, and straight playing field, and has subverted it by featuring queer Black girls. At the center of that is Temple, our protagonist whose father has been convicted of being a serial killer, and whose hunting ground was her family property which has now been transformed into a summer camp. Temple gets the job of a counselor in hopes of finally finding her mother’s body, and her prickliness and hidden identity is a clashing point for the campers. Temple herself is a character I liked a lot, because even though she is probably seen as pretty unlikable, her trauma, family history, and inability to process makes that prickly personality completely understandable. And while a lot of the other campers weren’t super well fleshed out, there were a few that I thought had a lot of good character development and background foundation (the one that really comes to mind is Yaya, a queer teenager who is also a devout Christian and knows that the two things can be reconciled). It’s just refreshing seeing a cast of characters that buck the narrow trends of the genre.

But there were a few hiccups that didn’t work for me. The first is that there were some aspects of the plot that felt a little undercooked, and at times confusing. I felt like I really understood Temple and her motivations, but when it came to the lore of her family history, the land that the murders/camp was on, and her parents and their own motivators and even their trains of thought, these things felt brushed over, or in some ways a bit unclear. I know that slasher movies don’t really need that much motivation beyond ‘slasher A has motivation B and kills horny teenagers’, but even in those that have stood the test of time we have a very clear motivation set. Even the aforementioned closer analog “The Evil Dead” compensates for a very loosey goosey motivation by leaning into slapstick humor in the second two of the trilogy (and doesn’t make Ash Williams much more than a poor sap with quippy lines and a constitution that can endure buckets of blood and a chainsaw hand). With Temple being so well rounded, I had hoped that her adversary would be well rounded too, but it felt lacking. Add in a bit of a pacing issue and it knocked points off from the overall read. All of this said, I am not the target audience for this book, and while these things didn’t work for me, I know that I would ABSOLUTELY be recommending this book to my teenage patrons who like their horror on the gory side.

I will be interested in seeing what Sami Ellis does with her next novel. “Dead Girls Walking” was brimming with lots of horror goodness in spite of some missteps here and there, and I hope she keeps bring her perspective to the genre.

Rating 6: I liked the cast of characters and some of the gory bits, but the plot was a little confusing and the background felt a bit off at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Dead Girls Walking” is included on the Goodreads lists “Queer Horror”, and “Summer Camp Horror”.

Serena’s Review: “Fathomfolk”

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Book: “Fathomfolk” by Eliza Chan

Publishing Info: Orbit, February 2024

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

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

Book: Welcome to Tiankawi – shining pearl of human civilization and a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest. Or at least, that’s how it first appears.
 
But in the semi-flooded city, humans are, quite literally, on peering down from skyscrapers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk — sirens, seawitches, kelpies and kappas—who live in the polluted waters below.
 
For half-siren Mira, promotion to captain of the border guard means an opportunity to reform. At last, she has the ear of the city council and a chance to lift the repressive laws that restrict fathomfolk at every turn. But if earning the trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn’t hard enough, everything Mira has worked towards is put in jeopardy when a water dragon is exiled to the city.
 
New arrival Nami is an aristocratic water dragon with an opinion on everything. Frustrated by the lack of progress from Mira’s softly-softly approach in gaining equality, Nami throws her lot in with an anti-human extremist group, leaving Mira to find the headstrong youth before she makes everything worse.
 
And pulling strings behind everything is Cordelia, a second-generation sea-witch determined to do what she must to survive and see her family flourish, even if it means climbing over the bodies of her competitors. Her political game-playing and underground connections could disrupt everything Nami and Mira are fighting for.
 
When the extremists sabotage the annual boat race, violence erupts, as does the clampdown on fathomfolk rights. Even Nami realises her new friends are not what they seem. Both she and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth it, or if Tiankawi should be left to drown.

Review: This has definitely been a highly anticipated read for me when I was looking forward through my TBR pile for the spring. The book summary lays out a pretty complicated, rich-sounding world that I was excited to dive into, and the cover art seem to paint a picture of the exact sort of romantic, fairytale-like tone that I look for in much of my fantasy. Plus, it was being marketed as an adult fantasy novel, which on its face doesn’t seem like much. But while there are a bunch of adult fantasy novels published all of the time, there aren’t necessarily many that sound like this.

I’ll just get it out of the way now: I didn’t really enjoy this book and probably would have DNF’d it if I hadn’t received an ARC from the publisher. But before we dive into my struggles with the story, let’s start with a few positives. As the book summary hints towards, there is a lot of creativity and detail to the worldbuilding in this book. I don’t know tons about all of the cultures that were drawn upon to create this world, but it was clear the author was pulling from a number of them and blending them into a unique world. I also really enjoyed some of the details that went into the little things, like the descriptions of the street vendors and the foods they would sell. There was definitely an experience, especially early in the book, of wanting to simply walk down these streets to see it all.

That said, as beautiful as the cover art was for the story, it did mislead me a bit about the time period and setting of this book. It clearly is using elements of historical building styles, implying a less modern setting than what we have here. I was surprised to find cable cars and trams and the like as I read further. There’s obviously nothing wrong with this sort of setting, but it did feel like a bit of a bait and switch as far as my expectations went. (To be fair to the book, I didn’t catch some of the book summary clues; so that’s on me for focusing too much on the cover). I’ll also add that while I enjoyed a lot of the details that went into the world-building, as the book continued, the thing as a whole began to a bit disjointed, with everything and the kitchen sink seemingly thrown in the book. As more and more was added, I felt more and more disconnected from what I was truly supposed to be focused on.

None of this was helped by the fact that I didn’t enjoy any of our three main characters. At times annoying, at others incredibly naïve, and at others clearly biased themselves, each character in their own way was fairly unlikable. Again, writing characters who learn and grow can serve as an interesting arc, but between the three, I simply couldn’t find anything to grab onto at any point. I felt like I was just bouncing from one to another in a fairly robotic manner, caring little for who I was reading currently or who I was going to read next. None of them felt truly consistent in their worldviews or even their goals; for a book about sea creatures, I felt out to sea myself as a reader, lost in the flotsam of a plot that didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast.

I also found the pacing to be incredibly slow (often the case for a book that has to establish several POV characters while also building up a complicated world). However, as the story progressed, the pacing never really increased alongside it. It was one of those books that simply felt bland much of the time. There was nothing terrible about the writing, but it also wasn’t engaging and there were some form questions at play with the way scenes would end abruptly or other descriptive elements wouldn’t quite fit.

Overall, I was very disappointed by this book. Most of the time it felt like a chore to read, and I never really found anything that struck my interest or compelled me to want to continue reading. I won’t be continuing with the series, and I can’t strongly recommend this one. If you have a strong interest in Asian folklore, perhaps this is worth checking out, but even then, I think there are stronger examples of books like this out there.

Rating 6: An interesting premise fell apart in the face of a lackluster plot and unlikable lead characters.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Fathomfolk” can be found on this Goodreads list: Asian Mythology Inspired Books

Serena’s Review: “Sun of Blood and Ruin”

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Book: “Sun of Blood and Ruin” by Mariely Lares

Publishing Info: Harper Voyager, February 2024

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

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

Book Description: In sixteenth-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule.

To all who know her, Leonora de Las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs.

No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person. Leonora’s charade is tragically good, and with magic running through her veins, she is nearly invincible. Nearly. Despite her mastery, she is destined to die young in battle, as predicted by a seer.

When an ancient prophecy of destruction threatens to come true, Leonora–and therefore Pantera–is forced to decide: surrender the mask or fight to the end. Knowing she is doomed to a short life, she is tempted to take the former option. But the legendary Pantera is destined for more than an early grave, and once she discovers the truth of her origins, not even death will stop her.

Review: So, I went into this one with some trepidation. On one hand, I love the idea of a fantasy re-imaging of “Zorro” with a gender-swapped main character and taking place during the 16th century in the Spanish-colonized part of Mexico. So many parts of that premise have me interested, and, as a massive “Zorro” fan, I’ve been looking for a great version of this story for ages and have yet to find one. But on the other hand, this is one of those examples of a book that definitely suffers from its publication date. In that, it was published several months ago in the U.K. and picked up by various book boxes since then. That being the case, there are a ton of reviews available with readers thoughts on the book. And, unfortunately, they’re largely middling. However, given how excited I was initially and the fact that I often find myself disagreeing with the prevailing take, I still wanted to give this one a shot.

So, right away, I can understand why this book was a struggle for many readers. And while, as you’ll see from my rating, I largely agreed with the general consensus of this book, there are a few points that didn’t work for others that bothered me less. First of all, the book starts out in a very disjointed manner, with lots of jumps in time from the present day and then back in time Leonora’s days training in the jungle. I have no problem being plopped down in books like this, with very little information to start with, but it is a problem point for many readers. I will say, that while this basic structure wasn’t a problem for me, the overall execution of it was not the best. The way it was done severely impacted the pacing of the story, preventing me from connecting with the characters or really finding as solid footing in this world.

This was made more difficult by the need to rather regularly check the glossary at the back of the book to understand what was actually being discussed at times. Here, again, I like glossaries for the most part, but in general, I feel like they should support the story, rather than being required for basic comprehension of plot points of the story. This wasn’t helped by the fact that this is a very political book. I do like political stories, and, knowing less about this particular region and time period, I went into this one excited to learn more. However, again, the actual plotting and progression of the story that explored these ideas was so disjointed that it made the reading experience itself a challenge, and it wasn’t until the mid-point of the story that I really began to place how everyone was interacting with one another.

On top of this, I was disappointed in the “Zorro” aspects of the story. For all that we’re told that the Pantera is this badass vigilante, we get to see very little of this on the page. I was interested in the politics, sure, but I’m a simple woman at heart: I just wanted a bunch of badass Zorro/Pantera fight scenes, and I felt like that was severely lacking.

The writing, overall, was ok. I think the author had more success with her world-building and descriptive prose, however, than with the dialogue. Much of the latter felt stilted and scripted in a way that constantly took me out of the story. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I wasn’t super invested in the heroine or her love interest. There wasn’t anything actively bad about either of these characters, but I also simply didn’t care about their stories or their romance.

Overall, unfortunately, I have to agree that the general consensus for this book was largely right. Perhaps it will find its place with readers who are more interested in a political fantasy story than a “Zorro” story and who aren’t thrown by the slow start. But, sadly, my search for the definitive “Zorro” book continues.

Rating 6: Kind of a mess, with a plot that was all over the place and a main character who spent a lot of time telling us about being a badass vigilante, but less time showing us.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Sun of Blood and Ruin” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Historical Fiction 2024 and 2023 Debuts.

Serena’s Review: “Infinity Alchemist”

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Book: “Infinity Alchemist” by Kacen Callender

Publishing Info: Tor Teen, February 2024

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

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

Book Description: For Ash Woods, practicing alchemy is a crime.

Only an elite few are legally permitted to study the science of magic―so when Ash is rejected by the Lancaster Mage’s College, he takes a job as the school’s groundskeeper instead, forced to learn alchemy in secret.

When he’s discovered by the condescending and brilliant apprentice Ramsay Thorne, Ash is sure he’s about to be arrested―but instead of calling the reds, Ramsay surprises Ash by making him an offer: Ramsay will keep Ash’s secret if he helps her find the legendary Book of Source, a sacred text that gives its reader extraordinary power.

As Ash and Ramsay work together and their feelings for each other grow, Ash discovers their mission is more dangerous than he imagined, pitting them against influential and powerful alchemists―Ash’s estranged father included. Ash’s journey takes him through the cities and wilds across New Anglia, forcing him to discover his own definition of true power and how far he and other alchemists will go to seize it.

Review: While I hadn’t read any other books by this author, I was aware that he had written a good number of books before this one and was generally quite enjoyed! So I jumped at the opportunity to see what types of books he had in store! Plus, I’m always down for a good alchemist story! Unfortunately, however, I really struggled to enjoy this one. But, as always, let’s start with a few things I did enjoy!

While heavy-handed at times, I enjoyed the world-building and society that this book presented and the ways in which the author used these fantastical features to make commentary on the real world struggles and prejudices that people may face. I wouldn’t say any of it was particularly subtle or ground-breaking, but it also got the job done, and I think readers who enjoy a good social commentary built into their fantasy novel will likely enjoy this aspect of the story. I also enjoyed the unique take on the magic system, in which everyone is capable of alchemy since it pulls from one’s life force, but use of this magic is still heavily regulated and licensed. It sets up a good foundation for our main character, a young man who practices alchemy in secret.

But while this premise is good, I found myself really disliking Ash throughout much of this book. Yes, it is YA and Ash is young and thus somewhat excused for bursts of emotion, but this character really took it to new levels. He would react so explosively to situations that it was immediately off-putting, especially given how often these reactions placed him and his friends in more danger. At a certain point, “fiery” becomes just plain dumb and unfortunately, Ash crossed this line more than once. And then he’d swing wildly back to swooning over love interests the very next moment.

And this got to another struggle point: love interests, plural. As far as my romance preferences go, throuple stories are fairly low in my interest. For me, they’re like love triangles that just…continue. And all of the struggles I have with love triangles then just…continue. In that I often don’t feel like enough has been done to build up actual relationships between all three of the characters and everything quickly begins to feel superficial and like instalove (more really, instalust, given the lack of time/development given to these relationships). Such was the case here. On one hand, this is on me. If I had dug a bit deeper, I may have just passed on this book, knowing that I’m not going to be the best reader for it. But on the other hand, objectively, I do think these relationships are lacking in any real substance, unfortunately.

And, lastly, I do have to touch on some readability issues. One of Ash’s love interests is a character named Ramsey who is genderfluid. This is then expressed on page by switching the pronouns from “they” to “him” between chapters. I’m not sure what the solution is to writing these types of characters, but this approach really left me struggling and more often than not pulled me out of the story while I re-read sentences to find the context that might clue me in on who the “he” was at any given moment. Given that the character also used “they,” it might have been best to just leave it at that. I’m not sure if switching pronouns between chapters served any real purpose, narratively, and, for me at least, it took me out of the book enough times to severely disrupt my reading experience, from a practical point.

Over all, I really struggled with this book. While there is a lot of action on the page, I felt disconnected from all of the characters and had a hard time maintaining interest in their stories. Fantasy readers who enjoy throuple stories and are looking for a good fantasy world with social commentary built in nicely may want to check this out. But I do think there are better books out there with all of these things.

Rating 6: A dislike of the main character and a struggle with some of the writing mechanics left this one as a bit of a downer for me.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Infinity Alchemist” can be found on this list: 2024 Dark Academia Releases.

Kate’s Review: “The Night of the Storm”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Night of the Storm” by Nishita Parekh

Publishing Info: Dutton, January 2024

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

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

Book Description: Hurricane Harvey is about to hit Houston. Meanwhile, single mom Jia Shah is already having a rough week: her twelve-year-old son, Ishaan, has just been suspended from school for getting in a fight. Still reeling from the fallout of her divorce—their move to Houston, her family’s disapproval, the struggle to make ends meet on her own—now Jia is worried about Ishaan’s future, too. Will her solo parenting be enough? Doesn’t a boy need a father?

And now their apartment complex is under a mandatory evacuation order. Jia’s sister, Seema, has invited them to hunker down in her fancy house in Sugar Land, and despite Jia’s misgivings—Seema’s husband, Vipul, has been just a little too friendly with her lately—Jia concedes it’s probably the best place to keep Ishaan safe during the hurricane. With Jia’s philandering ex scrutinizing her every move, all too eager to snatch back custody of Ishaan, she can’t afford to make a mistake.

When Vipul’s brother and his wife show up on Seema’s doorstep, too, it’s a recipe for disaster. Grandma, the family matriarch, has never been shy about playing favorites among her sons and their wives. As the storm escalates, tensions rise quickly, and soon someone’s dead. Was it a horrible accident or is there a murderer in their midst?

With no help available until the floodwaters recede in the morning, Jia must protect her son and identify the culprit before she goes down for a crime she didn’t commit—or becomes the next victim. . . .

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

Even though Minnesota has some pretty brutal cold and snow events in the dead of winter, I know that I would prefer this over hurricanes. I know people who have been in pretty intense situations surrounding hurricanes, and have even had relatives flee up to Minnesota to escape danger during particularly bad ones. But I do love the idea of a hurricane being a situational factor in a murder mystery, so when I read the description of “The Night of the Storm” by Nishita Parekh, I knew that I had to read it. I went in with high hopes, wondering how a combustible family and extended family unit would fare coming face to face with a potential murderer during Hurricane Harvey, and while I chugged along through it, it didn’t quite meet said high hopes.

But first the good! One of the most important things about a thriller, for me, is if it keeps me reading and keeps me questioning what is going on, especially if it has some outside the box elements. “The Night of the Storm” is a locked room mystery, but the locked room aspect is the fact that this family is trapped in a house during Hurricane Harvey, and they can’t leave due to the dangers and can’t contact anyone very well due to the power issues and the general chaos during a natural disaster. If you find a creative way to isolate people in a story like this, I am automatically going to have to give it some props. I also liked that in this thriller, a genre that can be pretty white, we have an Asian Indian American family at the heart of it, and how some aspects of the culture Jia and Seema were raised in brings other conflicts that could potentially exacerbate the dangers in the moment (Jia’s divorced status making her seen as less than or unreliable by family, the tension between a judgmental mother in law and her daughter in law, the narrow definitions of what success can look like for sons). It makes for a bit of a fun family drama on top of the very pressing ‘trapped in a hurricane with a murderer’ situation.

That said, I think that a way that this book stumbles is that outside of Jia the other characters weren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be. I like that we got insight into their back stories through Jia’s perspectives, but I would have liked to see more depth to a few of them. As it was, I wasn’t as invested in them as characters, and that makes the stakes not as high as I would like them to be in a thriller. I really liked Jia, and I was worried about her and her son Ishaan (and even on an existential level, as she is in the midst of a divorce from a toxic husband whom she thinks wants to take Ishaan away from her), but as more danger cropped up for everyone I wasn’t super nervous about the outcomes of the actual mystery and more about whether or not Jia would maintain custody of her son after all was said and done. Add into that a thrill ride that doesn’t tread too far from what is usually expected from the genre and familiar tropes that aren’t too unexpected, and it’s solidly okay, but not something that blew me away too much.

“The Night of the Storm” is fine. I am curious to read more thrillers by Nishita Perekh in the future. There is lots of promise that she can wow me down the line from glimmers in this book, even if as a whole it was average.

Rating 6: It’s a perfectly serviceable thriller, but pretty familiar tropes and pretty flat characters make for a generic read.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Night of the Storm” is included on Goodreads list “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”.

Kate’s Review: “Hanging the Devil”

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Book: “Hanging the Devil” by Tim Maleeny

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, November 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from the publisher.

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

Book Description: It was supposed to be a simple steal the paintings, leave the forgeries… When a helicopter crashes through the skylight of the Asian Art Museum, an audacious heist turns into a tragedy. The only witness to the crash is eleven-year-old Grace, who watches in horror as her uncle is killed and a priceless statue stolen by two men and a―ghost? At least that’s how the eerie, smoke-like figure with parchment skin and floating hair appears to Grace. Scared almost to death, she flees into the night and seeks refuge in the back alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Grace is found by Sally Mei, self-appointed guardian of Chinatown. While Sally trains Grace in basic survival skills, her erstwhile partner Cape Weathers, private detective and public nuisance, searches for the mysterious crew behind the robbery before they strike the museum a second time. As the clock winds down, Cape enlists aid from some unlikely allies to lay a trap for a ghost who has no intention of being caught―nor of leaving any witnesses alive to tell the tale.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and Wunderkind PR for sending me a print copy of this novel!

While I tend to branch out quite a bit in the horror genre into many a sub genre, when it comes to Thrillers I really tend to stick to a couple, rarely deviating. I love psychological thrillers, procedurals, and historical thrillers (and both of those sub genres have many branches), but rarely do I stray out from those. But sometimes I like to take a chance, and when I was approached with “Hanging the Devil” by Tim Maleeny, an action thriller with a heist theme at its center, I decided to give it a go. I like trying new things, and since it’s a new year I thought that it could be a good time to work on that, reading wise. It’s always a risk, and it wasn’t one that completely paid off in this case.

But first the good, and that probably applies to a LOT of people who could be a potential audience for it. The heist storyline, the international intrigue, and the cast of characters is the perfect combination for one of those 2000s and 2010s USA shows like “Burn Notice”, “Psych”, and “Monk”. Whether it’s sarcastic PI Cape Weathers or badass fighter Sally or precocious Grace, the characters are fun and fizzy and have the exact kind of jaunty chemistry that makes for a jovial cast. The action is very visual in the descriptions, and I had no problem visualizing it as I was reading it, from foot chases to fights to the helicopter crash from the jump. I also enjoyed the discussion of the ethics of art and museums and how collections came to be, and who has the rights to have the pieces and whether these pieces should be returned to their countries of origin. Repatriation of art has been a more discussed topic in recent years, and as someone who used to work in museums (one of which did have some discussion about repatriation regarding parts of its collection) it’s always gratifying to see themes like these discussed in places that I don’t expect it as much. It’s also important to note that this is the fifth book in an ongoing series, but Maleeny does a good enough job with the characters and the need to know information that I didn’t feel terribly lost even without the context of four prior outings with plot and character development.

But I think that at the end of the day, “Hanging the Devil” was a mismatched reading choice for me because I still just can’t quite get on board with heist stories. It’s a thriller sub genre that does very little for me, and while the focus was on the people who were trying to solve who was behind the heist and not the heist itself, it still felt within that kind of tale, and that, overall, doesn’t connect with me. I’m always trying to retry sub genres or story types that don’t suit me just in case something clicks, and enough about “Hanging the Devil” clicked that I found it entertaining (again, the similarities to the aforementioned TV shows really helped because I loved those kinds of shows back in the day). I think that fans of action packed thrillers dealing with underworld mayhem and daring do would probably like this book (and the rest of the series), so while it didn’t hit every mark I had hoped it would, it will probably hit them for fans of the sub genre and its conventions.

“Hanging the Devil” is entertaining and fast paced, an action thriller with humor and heart. If you consider yourself a fan of heist stories and the dramedies of the USA Network, it could be a fun read this winter!

Rating 6: It’s an entertaining romp that would work SUPER well on the screen, but overall the sub genre isn’t really the kind of thriller I connect with.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Hanging the Devil” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Thievery Tales”.

Serena’s Review: “That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon”

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Book: “That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon” by Kimberly Lemming

Publishing Info: Orbit, January 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: NetGalley!

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

Book Description: Spice trader Cinnamon’s quiet life is turned upside down when she ends up on a quest with a fiery demon in this irreverently quirky rom-com fantasy that is sweet, steamy, and funny as hell—perfect for fans of  Legends & Lattes  and  The Dragon’s Bride. 

All she wanted to do was live her life in peace–maybe get a cat, expand the family spice farm. Really, anything that didn’t involve going on an adventure where an orc might rip her face off. But they say the Goddess has favorite, and if so, Cin is clearly not one of them… 

After saving the demon Fallon in a wine-drunk stupor, all Fallon wants to do is kill an evil witch enslaving his people. And, who can blame him? But he’s dragging Cinnamon along for the ride. On the bright side, at least he keeps burning off his shirt.

Review: I’ll be honest, I definitely requested this one purely based on the unique title and the cute cover. Both were unlike any book I’d seen before, and after reading the synopsis, I was looking forward to reading a romantic fantasy with a heavy dose of comedy, ala some of T. Kingfisher’s work. Alas, it didn’t live up to my expectations. It’s hard to say whether it was a book problem or a me problem or a combination of both, but this will be one of those books that I think needs just the right reader to land perfectly.

For one thing, while the book is definitely high fantasy in its world-building and magic, it was very modern in its language, both the dialogue and some of the narration. And when I say modern language, I’m not talking about standard English (a qualifier that you do actually have to make for some fantasy that calls back to older forms of English, or formal English, or what have you). No, this is modern English in that there is tons of lingo thrown all over the place. And this is where I find one of my first points about the narrow lane for readers who will enjoy this book: this is a romance book that is heavy in the “adult themes” of its romance, but on the other hand, the jargon and lingo used is very much on the younger side. It’s not a comfortable pairing. I suspect that many of the adult readers who will enjoy the romance of this story might be put off by some of the ridiculousness of the language. And, honestly, I’m not sure it’s a great example of the use of the lingo even for younger audiences. It just felt corny and try-hard much of the time.

And this points leads right into my second major struggle area: I didn’t connect with the humor at all. Most of the jokes landed with a thud, and rather than laugh, I caught myself rolling my eyes more and more. At its best, humor is not only funny but endears the characters to the reader. Here, the humorous “takes” from our main character had me rapidly losing all respect for her and becoming increasingly annoyed by her choices. At one point, Cin makes some “snarky” remark about how books always have “bandit rapists.” And while I get what the author was trying to do with this meta level of awareness, the scene itself doesn’t go any further in unpacking this trope than using its inclusion as another moment for Cin to say something “witty.” It’s not subverting a trope if you just threw it in there to make your heroine seem clever for recognizing that it’s a trope in the first place. Then, later, there are other moments where horrific violence occurs, and Cin is written as just not really caring about all of the consequences? Throughout it all, she simply became pretty unlikable.

Beyond that, I was uncomfortable with the romance itself. I wasn’t expecting a “fated mates” romance, and those are my least favorite, so that’s just a personal preference thing. But due to this nature, you never feel any true connection between these two other than lust and the fact that they are simply “destined” to be together. On top of that, the book strays hard into dubcon (dubious consent) territory. Now, I’m not a hardliner on this front, as I wouldn’t say that one character kissing another character without directly asking before is dubcon or anything like that. I think if you stray too far down those lines, the entire romance genre becomes fairly unworkable. That said, this book went way further than that. And, again, I know that some readers enjoy these types of romances, but not only do I personally not, I thought that this sort of romance sat uncomfortably against the “cozy,” “humor-centric” story that the marketing presents it to be (cover, title, even the book description itself). So, again, I think there may be a mismatch between readers and books.

Overall, I was really let down by this book. While some of these complaints are definitely personal preferences (and if they’re your jam, you may in fact enjoy this!), but I also think there are some serious quality issues with the lingo and the comedy aspects of the story. It simply wasn’t funny most of the time and instead read as very cliché and as if it was trying way to hard to be cute and quirky.

Rating 6: The humor landed with a thump and the main character became increasingly annoying as the book continued.

Reader’s Advisory:

“That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon” can be found on this Goodreads list: Books with Drinks on the Cover

Serena’s Review: “Powerless”

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Book: “Powerless” by Lauren Roberts

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, November 2023

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

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

Book Description: She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting. He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be. Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites.

The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.

Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done.

When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites’ powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.

Review: Well, what is there to say: tricked into reading this one by the hype train once again! That said, I’ve had a few surprises recently where books that were very hyped actually ended up being quite good! So while “popular on BookTok” is still often a red flag for me, I don’t want it to become an instant warning sign to not even check out a book. Unfortunately, this one re-established many of the reasons I’m hesitant about books that seem to be crazy hyped.

Mostly, this book felt like a conglomeration of tropes and recycled world-building. And on top of that, the writing felt very simplistic and even cheesy at times. Both of these complaints (tropes/unoriginal concepts and fairly low quality writing) are the ones that most often come up for me when I read books like this that have been highly hyped. Maybe I’m snobby, I don’t know, but it almost seems like the readers who hype these books seem to have very low bar set for the quality of what they’re reading. Don’t you want to read something different? Don’t you want a new story? A new world? A new romance? It’s all just so…tired.

It starts with the world which is pretty much just a high fantasy version of “Hunger Games.” The entire concept is also fairly crazy as this is apparently a world where everyone has powers and yet somehow society isn’t chaos?? Beyond that, those without powers are considered deadly threats for being diseased. And yet, fairly early on, we see and hear of several examples of people without powers being hidden away for years on end. If it was just a horrible stigma taken to a deadly level, then I would understand it. But I don’t understand the idea that these people are seen as actual threats to life and health when it’s very clear that this isn’t the case using any basic observational skills.

Beyond that, the seemingly endless types of abilities and powers that people in world could have served as a detriment to the stakes and storytelling in this book. It was like a constant dues ex machina. Brandon Sanderson has a few videos up on YouTube about his approach to building magic systems, and one of the points that he emphasizes is that your system, be it a strict or loose magic system, needs to have clear limitations. This book serves as a perfect case study in what happens when there are no limitations, and the end result is that it sucks out much of the coherence or sense of stakes built into the story.

From there, I felt the main character and the love interest were cardboard cutouts of the same characters I’ve read in books like this before. They weren’t necessarily bad characters, but they were so familiar, so uncreative that I simply couldn’t find myself caring. Paedyn was your heroic underdog type and Kai was your supposedly morally grey, mighty fighter type. And again, many of these character traits are simply told to the reader, often in fairly cheesy dialogue. Kai referring to himself as a monster more than once is a good example of this. But what do we actually see from him? A guy living in a violent society who, if anything, has a much more moral approach to what he does than others. So…monster? Really?

Overall, I was very underwhelmed with this book. It felt incredibly familiar and was built on too many tropes to even count. The characters weren’t bad, but they also weren’t bringing anything new or interesting to the table. The writing was also very simplistic and failed to draw me in. I know the author has a big TikTok following, so I’m sure it will do well with a built-in fanbase. But if you’re a general fantasy reader looking for the next book to pick up, I can’t say I recommend this one.

Rating 6: Not for me, I feel like I’ve read this same book many times before and don’t need to read one again.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Powerless” can be found on this Goodreads list: Best Fantasy Fiction for Teenagers

Kate’s Review: “Where the Dead Wait”

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Book: “Where the Dead Wait” by Ally Wilkes

Publishing Info: Atria/Emily Bestler Books, December 2023

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

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

Book Description: William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace.

Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day’s chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens­­—the man who’s haunted his whole life—back home. But when the rescue mission becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he’s done. Abandonment. Betrayal. Cannibalism.

Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition, as well as Stevens’s wife, a spirit-medium whose séances both fascinate and frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it becomes clear that the restless dead are never far behind. Something is coming through.

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

It’s now December, and the temperatures here in Minnesota are starting to drop and there are higher and higher changes that snow is going to be in the forecast. I don’t mind winter THAT much, especially around Hanukkah and Christmas, but I will say that by the time we get to the time of year with the holiday season behind us I do start to think that maybe, just maybe, less cold, ice, and snow could be a fun shake up from the norm (though maybe that invites a monkey’s paw situation with climate change, arg, I can’t win). But we aren’t there yet, and cold weather means cold stories are all the more powerful. So I start off the encroaching winter with “Where the Dead Wait” by Ally Wilkes. Because it’s good to remind myself that while a Minnesota winter can be arduous, at least I’m not on a failed polar expedition in the 1800s where starvation, disease, and cannibalism are the outcomes.

I truly believe that Wilkes has a gift for how she writes a story, bringing out evocative and vibrant imager and moments of beauty as well as horror. There were so many moments where a certain turn of phrase or descriptor flowed with a flowery ease that I don’t usually expect from a horror novel. I noticed this while reading Wilkes’s previous novel as well, and it feels like a unique writing style choice for a historical ice horror tale. I also really enjoyed a few of the characters in this book, namely Charles Day, the disgraced captain of a previous polar expedition who is haunted by the things he did to survive (as well as his sexual desires and same sex attractions), and Mrs. Stevens, a self proclaimed medium who brings spiritualist tendencies to the expedition seeking out her husband, who is now lost again on on the previous expedition with Day (and whom Day was very fixated upon). These characters worked for me, as did the themes of the spiritualist movement and the questions of validity that go with it.

But here is where I got a little hung up when it comes to this book. I felt like “Where the Dead Wait” has a LOT of similarities to Wilkes’s previous book., “All The White Spaces”. They are both historical horror books that take place during a doomed polar expedition (one arctic, one antarctic), they involve weird supernatural things in the snow, a conflicted protagonist, and a slow burn of descent into madness and desperation. I think that it’s a well done book in terms of these aspects, but it’s already something we’ve seen from Wilkes, and it was something we JUST saw in terms of the chronology of her novels. I wholly understand having an interest in a specific theme, and I absolutely think that an author has every right to write about what they wish to write about when it comes to that interest. But I did think that coming up so close upon the previous one it felt like more of the same. I think that what adds to this is the double edged sword of Wilke’s writing style. It’s very deliberate and at times flowery with some awesome prose and descriptors, but it can also be slow going because of those things. So yes, I praise it for being an interesting way to write and approach a story like this above, but combining it with other aspects that can weigh the story down makes it not as easy to get through, at least in my experience.

I’m not writing Ally Wilkes off as of now, as “Where the Dead Wait” had some great moments and some meat to it (maybe not the best descriptor, but so it goes). I do hope that perhaps on the next adventure out we’ll go beyond what we’ve seen before.

Rating 6: Definitely compelling with some great imagery and prose, but at the same time it feels a LOT like the author’s previous novel.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Where the Dead Wait” is included on the Goodreads lists “Horror to Look Forward To in 2023”, and “Queer SFF of 2023” (though this is definitely less fantasy and more horror, but still).