May Reviews

Happy spring! Summer is fast approaching, and with it the perfect weather for reading outside. I'm also excited because, for the first time since I started doing it, I have all of my books ready to read the rainbow for pride next month. SO, excited about what I've already read and what I'm about to read. I love summer.

Let's get to it!

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

I sped through this book in like four days, and while it's still not my favorite Meyer story, it was absolutely a riveting and wild book. There were so many twists and turns and "back to square ones," which was really cool for a reinterpretation of a story that doesn't seem to have a lot of room for movement or changes. But this kept the key elements while changing everything else to feel completely new.

Serilda, trapped outside of her body and desperately trying to break her curse, thinks she has the Erlking's plan figured out. But when it becomes clear that he has a bigger, much more terrible plan in mind, it's up to Serilda and Gild to find a way to stop him, or risk an eternal reign of terror falling over the mortal world. But there is more at stake than even they know, and they must find a way to save the world, themselves, and their unborn child.

This is a sequel, so you know the review is going to be short, but I really did have a lot of fun with this book. I did get very anxious getting down to the last few pages and wondering how things were going to work out. Meyer does a phenomenal job of keeping you on your toes the entire time, and this book definitely had twice as much action and adventure as the first one, so the pace hardly slowed. There was also a lot more world building and exploration, with the seven gods coming into play as actual characters and adding to the lore and stakes of it all.

That being said, it was a really long book that almost felt as though it could have been split into two, with how drastically things changed about midway through. I appreciate that Meyer kept to two books though, since I do think duologies are underrated and sometimes a trilogy is just dragged out way too much for the sake of having three complete books (a hot take, I know). There is a big tonal shift though, but then the action just kicks into gear.

And it is a happy ending, which I was grateful for. It really gets down to the wire with it, but I think that fairy tales, even reimagined and fully recreated one, should always end at least a little bit happily.

I Am Not Your Chosen One by Evelyn Benvie

This was a fun, kind of cheeky look at fantasy novels while also creating a warm not quite coming of age story about finding a place in the world.

Kell is not anyone's idea of an ideal chosen one. Running from his family and his small Minnesota town, he finds himself dropped into a fantasy world, expected to face great evil and triumph as the goddess' chosen one. Kell very quickly realizes that's not for him and heads off to find his own adventure, collecting an eclectic party of a handsome angel and a bold forlk along the way. Together, they'll start to unravel what's really wrong with the world they're in, and maybe with a little help from the stars, find a place for themselves.

Kell is sarcastic, awkward, has absolutely no sense of self preservation or decorum, and made me laugh out loud several times with his stupid remarks. He's a burnt out twenty-six year old mistreated by the family he's stuck living with and desperate for anything to get him out of his life. And honestly, I can't blame him for taking one look at the potential for fantasy adventure and going "yeah okay." His lack of survival skills makes for a rather humorous attempt at hero-ing, but that's what an adventuring party is for, and Ansel and Fre make for an entertaining and not quite well rounded party.

The world building felt like a poke at classic fantasy creations with a more diverse twist-- the elves were all nonbinary and society embraced them as such, which was very fun. There were some parallels to Kell's world that allowed him to find connections with people in how they've been treated as well, which kept the whole thing grounded and felt like a great reminder that this supposedly ideallyc place actually had quite a few things wrong with it.

I also loved the exploration of Kell's demi/graysexuality with his relationship with Ansel, and how clear communication of his boundaries wasn't the easiest thing to express, and how the anxiety rooted in that can make it so hard to even start a conversation or relationship.

The dialogue and some if Kell's internal thoughts (or external comments) felt a little stilted at times, and certain parts of it dragged on longer than I would have liked, but overall I had a fun time with this! The ending implies a lot of future potential, and I'm undecided as to whether or not I'd read any follow up books.

But if you like fantasy or contemporary fantasy or books where someone from the real world is pulled into a magical one, with an extra helping of sarcasm and reluctant hero business, give this a try.

Ravensong by Cayla Fay

I do love a "gods living among humans learning to appreciate both their divinity and humanity" story, and this really scratched that itch. The reincarnation aspect was also a nice touch, and the final bit of frosting on the cake was that it's both a sister story and a queer love story.

Neve Morgan is counting down the days until she turns 18, when she'll regain the memories of her past lives and finally manifest her godly powers. Until then, she's the breakable one in the triad of her sisters, all of them tasked with protecting the world from demons breaking through the hellgate. It's annoying, having to live as a human when she's so much more than that, at least until Neve meets Alexandria, who is unintimidated by her stoic demeanor and slowly breaking down the walls Neve has spent 17 years building. And the closer they get, the more Neve starts to question her purpose, and the system starts to crumble around her, revealing truths that even Neve and her sisters' other lifetimes never could have suspected.

I love Neve and her sisters. They're weird and powerful and essentially teenage gods who've lived for a thousand years. Neve is funny and standoffs, stuck in her own head and the most ridiculously self sabotaging person who also desperately wants to belong. The little ragtag group of friends that Alexandria forces her to make are a delight, and their banter was some of the funniest parts in the book.

There was also a very serious tone though, between the sisters defending humanity from demons to the solitude Neve felt in her isolated still human self, separated from her previous lives and her sisters who already remembered them. Talk about an angsty teenager feeling like no one could understand them.

The world building was interesting, taking a small coastal town and throwing in a bunch of Irish mythology, led by three immortal nuns. I would have likes to see more about that and the way the system worked, but I suspect that could be revealed in a following book, since this one ended on a cliffhanger.

I had a really good time with this books. Parts of it were overdramatic, but it's teenage gods so that's to be expected. And while I skimmed some of the battle scenes, I enjoyed the rest of it, getting sucked into the story easily.

If a sequel is in the works, I will more than likely keep reading.

In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

I'm obsessed with everything TJ Klune writes and that's a fact, but this one is extra special because it's my choice for a little book club with my friends (we're each picking a different book, annotating it, and then mailing it to the next person). And I'm stoked to send this one to my friend because it was very good.

Victor Lawson grew up in a house in the woods not really understanding how different he is. A human raised by machines, Victor spends his days fixing things and scouring the scrap yards for more robots to fix up (with his trusty companions Rambo and Nurse Ratched). The day he finds a new robot in the yard, everything changes. Hap doesn't remember where he came from, but the city remembers him, and when machines descend upon their forest safe haven, it's up to Victor to be brave and save his family.

This story, like all of Klune's work, is a gorgeous blend of riotous humor and family-centered love and change. I laughed a lot reading this book, especially at the witty dialogue quips between Rambo and Nurse Ratched. Each of the characters is so unique and wonderful, and it a joy to read their story. I also had a lot of Big Feeling moments and did a lot of underlining big powerful quotes than anything else.

It also meant a lot to me that Victor was asexual. There's a lot of really cool uses of mechanical language to talk about human emotions, but the chunk where asexuality is explained to Victor and he essentially replies with a relieved "so I'm not malfunctioning?" had me near weeping. In a book about humanity, published in our very sex-idealized world, to have the (spoiler alert) only human be ace and sex-repulsed is incredibly important to me. Victor is never made to be anything but himself, and in a book about change and acceptance and choosing who you want to me (all centered around someone like me), I am just. I have a lot of feelings about it.

As far as the story itself goes, this was a very interesting interpretation of Pinocchio, with just a hint of Frankenstein and dystopia AI. I loved all the subtle references, even the ones I had to Google to understand fully. It's also a commentary on the family you make and find liking yourself the way you are. It wasn't my favorite of Klune's work (I think that stays with House in the Cerulean Sea) but it was still massively enjoyable and very well done.

Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot

This was a really interesting concept, and while the execution felt a little rushed a times, overall I thought this was a pretty good queer paranormal story.

Charlie is just trying to get by without the ghosts of York knowing he can see them. After a few too many near deadly close encounters, Charlie is done with all ghosts (except his friends Ollie and Heather, but they don't want to kill or use him so they can stay). But then Charlie meets Sam, a Seer like him, only Sam has grand aspirations of helping ghosts instead of avoiding them. And when several high profile ghosts go missing, Charlie may not have a choice but to join Sam in the investigation. But as sparks fly between the two of them, so does the danger, lurking a little too close to home.

I really liked certain aspects of this book, like the chracters and the overall concept, but some of it felt a little...not quite far fetched, I understand it's a ghost story and fiction and all of that, so there's a suspension of disbelief going on, but certain parts of it seemed a little difficult of a jump to make within the world. I could mostly get past that though, and overall enjoyed it.

The world building was interesting (and terrifying), and I really liked learning about the ghosts in York and the horrible death loops. Charlie and Sam had such different approaches to handling their ghosts and trauma and syill finding a way to come together, both to save the ghosts and romantically. The writing style made it feel very visceral, and I was scared reading chunks of it, so that's a successful paranormal story.

Overall Sixteen Souls is about not being alone and acceptance both for yourself and for other people, facing your fears and finding community.

And that's it! Have a great pride month!

Literary Recommendation: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Media Recommendation: the Ahsoka show comes out soon, so my sister and I are rewatching Rebels to prep, and it's ridiculous and fun and very much a good time