Synopsis: The corpse that kicks off this murder investigation is grosser than gross (think taxidermy and meat glue), and the whole thing goes to a supernaturally dark place for all concerned. Review: Lauren Beukes effortlessly melds the genres of crime and horror in Broken Monsters, to the point where I genuinely had no idea what to expect or how it was going to end. And the ending did blow me away–and haunted me with a nightmare. Eek!
Synopsis: The interlocking stories of Darcy, an 18-year-old who has just gotten a contract for her first novel, and Lizzie, the protagonist of Darcy’s novel who is having a love affair with a Hindu death god. Review: Afterworlds had great promise but Scott Westerfeld loved Darcy too much, and didn’t make her suffer enough. I got tired of hearing the characters talk about how they were all wonderful writers. Even if they are wonderful writers (and Darcy’s novel does have “the juice”), it grates. But…
Synopsis: A reporter heads back to her hometown to write about a serial killer, only to find her own past coming back to haunt her. Review: I didn’t love Sharp Objects, but I will admit it’s a good page-turner. I just couldn’t get past the central character conceit, that she’s carved her body full of words. I knew someone once who gave himself a home tattoo of the word “TRUST” after the Hal Hartley movie, and it took up like half his leg because it…
Synopsis: In the third Lightbringer book, bastard son turned full spectrum polychrome Kip Guile finds himself fully immersed in politics and war, while ex-slave Teia discovers that her seemingly obscure talent for drafting a color invisible to all but a few might in fact make her a key player in the coming of the apocalypse–or its prevention, and ex-Prism Gavin Guile’s past sins wreak their vengeance on him as he becomes a color-blind galley slave. Review: Awesome, awesome, awesome. Brent Weeks’ strongest book yet and…
Synopsis: In the conclusion to the Southern Reach trilogy, the answers to the mysterious area known only as Area X may be revealed to Ghost Bird, Control, and someone with a deep connection to the enigmatic lighthouse keeper. Review: I read Acceptance about as avidly as I read the first two books in the series, making sure to read slowly so as not to miss any of the small pebbles and stones constructing the majestic stone wall that is the Southern Reach Trilogy. He knows…
Synopsis: When her best friend has a mysterious seizure and ends up in a coma in the hospital, a high school girl begins questioning everything she knows about her friends and family–and then another one of her friends falls victim, too. Review: I wasn’t sure if I would love or hate The Fever, but imagined I wouldn’t fall in the middle the way that I did. There were enough intriguing elements to keep me interested, along with some good surprises, but the emotional payoff just…
Synopsis: As Quentin tries to make sense of a life without Fillory, a mysterious bird summons him to pull off the heist of a magical lifetime. Review: I got so much reading pleasure out of the trilogy that concludes in The Magician’s Land that I won’t wallow too much in my disappointment. Let me make one thing clear–my theological differences with Grossman have nothing to do with my criticisms of the ending of the story. Sure, his worldview is about as far from mine as…
Synopsis: Now a king in Fillory, Quentin Coldwater struggles with the same ennui that beset him at Brakebills, and wonders if he will ever be happy–and then he’s abruptly kicked out of paradise. Read my original review here. Review: Like with my reread of The Magicians, when I reread The Magician King I was both bowled over by the characterization and risk-taking, and overly aware of some of the contrivances and plot expediencies needed to make the story work. And again, I did not care…
Synopsis: After being hidden away for 19 years, the lawful heiress to the throne of the Tearling emerges from hiding, only to find her kingdom tarnished by an ongoing atrocity perpetuated by someone she always admired, and her life in danger from many sides. Review: Queen of the Tearling is a bold, skillful beginning to a promising series. The twist here is that the feudalism typical of epic fantasy is actually the fallout after all technology has failed. It’s futuristic and medieval all at once,…
Synopsis: Check out my review from three years ago. Review: What struck me most on my re-read ofThe Magicians was how hard Grossman was working to pull off the implausibility of his scenario. He needed Quentin & co. to be college age so that they could drink and then head out into the working world and suffer quarter life crises and all that, but he also wanted to play with the conventions of the classic boarding school story, which typically take place in high school.…