September Reviews

I almost didn't get this done because I've been not feeling well the past few days. It's not Covid, thankfully, just a nasty nauseous feeling that makes it difficult to eat or focus on anything. Luckily, I tend to write these reviews as I go, so the only thing I have to fix is any typing-on-my-phone grammar issues and fixing up the final review.

So let's get started!

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This book has been on my radar for a very long time, but it wasn't until it was given to me by a friend that I finally read it.

Jacob Portman has always wanted to have an exciting life. After hearing the stories his grandfather told about growing up in a magical sounding house, Jacob dreamed for years of finding his own adventure. But then he grows up and his grandfather dies in front of him, killed by a nightmarish creature only Jacob can see. Convinced he's losing his mind, Jacob travels to the island of Cairnholm, where his grandfather stayed in that magic house, convinced that if he can find where his grandfather came from he'll finally understand his cryptic last words. What Jacob finds instead is a world beyond his wildest imagination, filled with all kinds of peculiar people. But there are dangers lurking too, shadows that haunt Jacob as he tries to find his place between the world he thought he knew and the adventure he's always wanted.

This book was a really good balance of magical wonder and grim realism. It didn't hold back from the monsters or the war or the teenage cynicism that Jacob viewed his world through. But it also gave the readers time to marvel at the peculiars and their talents, the world they had crafted for themselves in their loop. I'm not normally a fan of time travel media, but this was something delightfully unexpected with such a fantastical concept. The inclusion of photographs created another layer of storytelling and made for both chilling and amusing moments within the story.

The pacing of it was something I struggled with a little bit in the beginning, just because there was so much build up to Jacob going to Cairnholm and finding the home. Part of that, though, I realized was because we needed the comparison of Jacob's boring life and complex relationship with his family so that the magic of Miss Peregrine's loop would stick better. We as readers had to be able to understand Jacob's willingness to give it all up for this place and people he's only just discovered. So in that respect everything worked out for the pacing.

I would've liked more time with certain characters, but with a cast as large as this one it was difficult to even get the time we did. Millard is a great character, so I'm glad we got time with him, and I would've loved more with Fiona and Hugh. Emma was great, but I was a little weirded out about her and Jacob, especially since Emma had been in love with his grandfather. There's even a part of the book where Jacob recognizes how weird that is but still can't seem to stop himself.

The world building in this book was fascinating, with the idea of birds as time travelers and loops created to keep peculiars safe. The hollowgasts were horrifying, with an interesting history, especially once the secret of the wights were revealed. I especially liked the comparisons from 1940 to Jacob's modern time and the fascination of the other children with where he had come from. It matched Jacob's equal fascination with their world and the strange physics of it all.

This book is most definitely the first in a series and I haven't decided if I'm going to keep reading the rest of the series or not. I'll probably see how much ground I cover with my already rather full to be read shelf and then figure it out from there.

Similar to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling and The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson) by Rick Riordan

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

This book was beautiful and thrilling and horrifying and fucked me up real bad. I'm super glad I didn't read it earlier on in the quarantine/lockdown but I am very glad that I did read it because holy shit.

Raxter School for Girls has been in quarantine for over a year. There used to be teachers and girls that filled both wings of the school, but at this point they hardly fill half, and only two teachers remain. The island is changing and the girls right along with it, a thing they call the Tox spreading through their bodies, killing some of them and changing others. Hetty and her two friends, Byatt and Reese, along with the others on Raxter have been following the rules put in place by the Navy and the CDC since this whole thing started: stay in the house, follow quarantine, and they'll find a cure. But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty's willing to break all the rules she needs to in order to find her, even if that means risking herself and everyone left on Raxter.

Oh man, this book pulls no punches and neither do any of the characters. These girls are vicious, doing what they need to stay alive. They have their factions and look out for each other, but there's also a clinical recognition that not everyone can be saved. They can do their best to look out for themselves and their own and hope the Tox doesn't kill them first. And that viciousness combined with the sheer unknown terror of the Tox really made this book feel all the more terrifying.

We're given two perspectives in this book: Hetty and Byatt. Both and very distinct both in their voices and because of the situation. Hetty was the voice of the island, the girl literally blinded by Raxter, unable to see through one eye that the Tox took from her. She was the narrator for most of the book, our look at how things began to fall apart even further, paranoia and the island itself destroying what's left of the school. Byatt was our look into the government side of things. We only got to see from her perspective after she was taken, and through her we learned about the science side of things, how the island and the Tox were treated by the officials studying it. Her voice was muddied by the drugs they gave her and the way the Tox burned through her, which made it disorienting at times but sometimes even more jarring.

The only one voice we didn't get to hear that mattered was Reese. Her and Hetty have a complicated relationship, and it takes a good chunk into the book for Hetty to recognize the pieces of Reese that are watching her, holding herself a certain way as a defense, rather than an offense. Reese is a conflicted and complex character, and I wanted a glimpse into her head, which, I did get in the end, with a little bonus deleted scene after the book ended. That helped a lot with understanding Reese's character, but even just seeing her just Hetty's eyes made her all the more intriguing.

The descriptions in this book are nightmarish and gross, blunt looks at the horrifying way the Tox changed the forest, he animals that lived in it, and the girls, shaping them into terrifying creatures seeking either survival or death. Their humanity is nearly driven from them by the Tox and desperation. If the disease didn't kill them, starvation or the animals might. The whole thing was so steeped in desperation and the need to survive that I read almost helplessly. What was there to do except hope that someone who knew more would find a way to help? Until suddenly there were no answers, there was no help, only Hetty and Reese, trying to keep themselves alive, trying to get out long enough to save Byatt.

The present of the book was interspersed with stories of the past, how it was at Raxter before the Tox set in, when Hetty first got there, first met Reese and Byatt, and that gave us insight into the characters but also contrasted with the horrors of the present. The girls all had to become something else, adapt with the changes the Tox made to their body, learn to shoot, to fight for food and themselves. They couldn't be the children they were before, the island wouldn't let them. And it was that combined with the failings of the people who were supposed to watch out for them, were supposed to keep them safe, that made everything that much worse.

The ending of the book, filled with ambiguity and unknowns, was probably the best Hetty and us, the readers, could hope for. It's a beautifully written and horrifying story, but go in cautiously. There is violence and blood and terror, but also there is survival and finding love in ways they didn't think possible anymore.

Similar to Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Oh man, oh man, this book has been hyped up online and in my mind for months now, and I have to say, it absolutely lives up. This book was fun and emotional and so, so good. I have zero complaints, it was seriously just a great time.

Yadriel has spent the last few years trying to convince his family that he really is a brujo, that he really is a boy. But his Latinx family is traditional, especially when it comes to the magic inherent in brujx, so Yadriel sets out to prove himself by summoning the spirit of his dead cousin. Only, Yadriel summons the wrong spirit, a bad boy named Julian, who refused to quietly go back to where he came from. The strike a deal: Julian will stay long enough to figure out how he died and make sure his friends are okay, then he'll let Yadriel release his spirit before it can turn maligno. But the longer Julian is around, the less Yadriel wants him to leave.

Bad boy ghost love interest? Transgender main character living his true self? A badass best friend with pink hair? DID I MENTION THE LOVE INTEREST IS A GHOST??? Shit this book had a genuinely amazing premise, and the execution was fantastic. Yadriel is honest and self-conscious and just wants to be seen for who he is, and we don't get a lot of stories of that kind with transgender main characters. There aren't a lot of transgender characters in books anyway, let alone a Latinx one with magic. And the magic was so cool too, steeped in Latinx culture and mythology. Aiden Thomas was clearly drawing from a history and culture he was very familiar with, and that made it all so much more powerful--and the same things goes for the transgender experience, since Aiden is more than familiar with that background as well!

The characters were so much fun. Julian was impulsive and angry and sweet all at once, and exactly what Yadriel needed. Both we the reader and Yadriel expected Julian to be a certain way, and he defied all kinds of expectations. He was goofy and cared about his friends and loved so fiercely. Honestly, Yadriel didn't stand a chance of not falling for him, I'll be real with you. And Julian's use of spanish was so intentional in this book. The other characters used it too, but Julian especially was very particular about his spanish. (Shout out to Duolingo, which has been patiently teaching me spanish for like two years now, and even though I am slow and very bad at it, I was able to figure out the spanish in this book! It also helped that it's very...'user friendly' I suppose could be the term for it. Most things were translated or easily determined through context if I didn't know the exact word). And Maritza! Maritza my love with the pink hair and vegan sensibilities and willingness to go to the ends of the earth for Yadriel. We could not have asked for a better main secondary character, especially once she had to walk around with the giant dogs attached to her hips.

No but seriously, the characters were really well paced and grew beautifully. Yadriel's relationship with his father (and his whole family, really) was complicated but loving. They were trying, in their own way, but they weren't all the way there yet, still viewing Yadriel as the girl he wasn't and trying to figure out where he fit within the grand scheme of brujx, even though he was clearly telling them. And so much of Yadriel's self-confidence and belief in himself stemmed from his family's acceptance, which was tenuous but growing, especially as the book progressed. And the family that already did accept him, well, minimal spoilers, but that was a betrayal I'm proud to say I did see coming but was shocked by nonetheless. Even Julian's friends were delightful to read about, especially Luca, who I just wanted to wrap in a blanket and tuck away from the rest of the terrible world.

I was especially pleased that any transphobia that existed in this story was shut the fuck down right away, with Yadriel telling the people who got it wrong who he was, no doubt, no questions. Maritza stuck up for him too, and Julian as well after his own little misstep. And Yadriel's proclamation "Soy Yadriel" was just--like, right from the get go we know exactly who Yadriel is, and that's a brujo, and this proclamation meant so much. I'm not great at spanish, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that 'soy' is more than just 'I am." I mean, that's the literal translation, but I think it carries a heavier meaning than that? Or maybe I'm just reading into things and incorrectly remembering my subpar Spanish. But the proclamation in spanish, the language of his family, his culture, his history, carries even more weight than just an english correction. Thomas was truly genius with his spanish usage in this book.

The descriptions were beautiful too, especially when it came to describing Lady Death and the decorations for Dia de Muertos. Thomas knows his way around descriptors, and boy did they get intense in places. It wasn't all beautiful marigolds and delicious food, it was also spirits in graveyards and looking death in the face. Thomas wasn't afraid to look at the (literal) bloody aspects of his book, from the use of blood in magic to the recognition that, although death is natural, that doesn't stop it from being tragic.

This book also touched on the less idyllic aspects of Latinx life; how living in LA included racist stereotypes and the threat of deportation. Luckily Yadriel dealt with most of it peripherally (meaning no on-page deportation or that sort of thing--that doesn't negate its existence, but it did mean the story got to focus on Yadriel and his journey and not the terrible things that happen in real life and fiction), but even just the mentioning of it was enough.

Every character in this book had heart, and it was such a joy to get to know them and watch them flourish within the pages. I loved, loved, LOVED, getting to read the chapter from Julian's perspective near the end, and Yadriel was such a good and honest narrator (no unreliable narrators here, only a gay trans boy in love with a ghost, nbd). This review is all over the place because genuinely all I want to do is gush about it. I loved this book, I'm sorry I'm so incoherent.

Similar to Dark and Deepest Red by Anne-Marie McLemore and The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

First and foremost, thank God I read Cemetery Boys between Wilder Girls and Gideon the Ninth, because I needed a buffer before another book fucked me up. And this book got to fuck me up a little bit in it's own way.

Gideon Nav, servant to the Ninth House and it's leader, Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus, bone witch and necromancer extraordinaire, and is more than ready to leave that hellhole behind. She's got her sword and her dirty magazines packed away, but Harrow won't let her go without one last service to her house. The Emperor has summoned the heirs of all nine houses and their cavaliers to take part in a ascendancy trial. As much as they despise each other, Harrow needs Gideon to take the place of her useless cavalier, and if they can succeed, Harrow would become one of the most powerful necromancers--one of the most powerful beings--in the entire universe. But the other heirs are power hungry too, and most of them are more than they seem. Soon, murder and chaos have descended on the competitors, and there's something lurking in the shadows of the emperor's house, something that would see all of them dead.

Gideon the Ninth, both the book and the character, is irreverent and hilarious, gritty and violent, unafraid to look at the rawness of being human and alive within the context of death. The book alternates between these harrowing moments and traumatic scenes to suddenly Gideon saying something profoundly hilarious or being an absolute dipshit. I loved every minute of it, even the parts that terrified me. I found myself laughing and wanting to hide under the covers for things within the same paragraph, and I definitely stayed up too late to read simply because I didn't want to turn out the light.

At first I was a little worried I'd get lost with all the characters, and for a bit I did, but after a while I got used to them all and could just about track everybody and their house. Muir through Gideon also provided very memorable and colorful commentary on the characters that helped define and distinguish them from one another. And reading from Gideon's viewpoint, who for all intents and purposes should be an outsider (not a real cavalier, born outside the Ninth House), was so fascinating, because it meant that she was nearly as clueless about certain things as the reader. And there were so many twisty bits and little quips tucked into a plot where you really have to be paying attention because the narrator sure isn't. Gideon grew a lot in the story as a person who started to care, predominantly about Harrow. And by God was Harrow terrible to her in the beginning, their hating each other was not a surprising thing in the slightest. This book was essentially an incredibly slow burn enemies to friends, and watching Harrow and Gideon start to trust and eventually care about one another was an absolute trip. I enjoyed it immensely.

I saw someone somewhere describe this book as science fantasy, which wasn't a genre I was aware existed before now but am delighted that it does. This book is science fantasy for sure, with the necromantic science alone giving it that title, but the fantastical bone creatures and theorems push it right over the edge. The creative worldbuilding in this book was astounding, I am still blown away by the world Muir has expertly crafted. Combined with the stunning descriptors, it made this whole book a very consuming and thrilling thing to read. If you think necromancy and lesbians in space are a thing you might enjoy, no doubt you need to pick up this book.

Similar to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Oh man, this book was a doozy. I love Bargugo's work, she's an incredible writer, but this book was something else. New adult rather than young adult, unafraid to face the harshest parts of humanity and recognize that shit isn't fair.

Galaxy "Alex" Stern has been given another chance at life. Moved from a drug den to Yale University because of her ability to see ghosts hasn't made for an easy transition, especially when her guide, Darlington, goes missing, leaving Alex to face the seedy ethics of the dangerous magic around her. A mystery in many parts, Alex is left trying to make sense of the violence ingrained in the systems upholding the school, and where she fits in the bloody story.

This book should probably come with trigger warnings and is not for the faint of heart. I've read worse, certainly, but this is a very personal kind of violence, the kind that doesn't hide from the damage people, especially men, can do. There's rape, sexual assault, murder, victim blaming, coercion, and a lot of blood in this story, and all of it is thrust in the face of the reader by a very in over her head survivor protagonist.

Alex keeps her secrets, hides her tattoos and her past like if she doesn't think about it for long enough she can pretend she's someone else. Alex is a survivor, a coward, and a hero. She's twisted and immoral at times, but ultimately her understanding of right and wrong is better than the men in power around her. And the other characters in the book are similarly fractured, trying their best and failing repeatedly. Darlington and Dawes are favorites of mine, but all the characters are given so much space to roam and hunt.

There are a lot of references in this book, some I understood and some I needed Alex's guidance to find. Her own feels of inadequacy over understanding literary references and the manners of this pretentious school helped build a bridge for the reader while also showing a lot of insight into Alex. The references she did understand were important. And despite her ability to lie and untrustworthy nature, I never once doubted Alex's credibility. She is not an unreliable narrator, and I trusted her completely.

There were, like, six different mysteries in this book, all of them linked and twisty, revealed in a haphazard and violent fashion as Alex tried to solve them all without being killed. It started with a murder, one that Alex refused to let go of, and the domino effect nearly tore down the societies.

The background and world building of this book is fascinating because Yale is a real place, one that Bardugo attended. While so much of it is obviously fiction, a lot of things were based in reality; the campus, the pretentiousness, the way men of power are allowed to get away with whatever they wanted. There's a lot of anger in this book, and all of the female anger was 100% valid.

The first half of Ninth House is told in alternating perspectives at different times; one is the fall, told by Darlington. As Alex adjusted to life at Yale and the Lethe, the other in the winter, as Alex told her own story and dealt with the aftermath of Darlington's disappearance. Both narrators were so distinct and had such interesting observations of the other. After Darlington disappeared, Alex took over full narrative power of the story, taking control of her story and stepping into the power no one understood she had.

Ninth House is dark and heavy, twisted with magic and murder, and it's worth the read with warnings.

Similar to: A Room Away From The Wolves by Nova Ren Suma and The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Witchy by Ariel Slamet Ries

This one was a quick read, since it's just the first book in a longer graphic novel series, but that didn't make it any less delightful.

In a world where the strength of a person's magic is determined by the length of their hair, the most powerful are conscripted to the Witch Guard, where those who are considered too powerful are burned. Nyneve, after witnessing the Witch Guard take her father, has been hiding the true length of her hair for years. But when her true hair length is revealed and she's unwillingly conscripted, Nyneve commits the ultimate taboo: she cuts of all her hair. Now on the run from a ruler hell bent on controlling all magic, Nyneve must rely on some unlikely allies to survive, and perhaps even change the world while she's at it.

This book is full of beautiful artwork and different characters, where everybody was distinct and had different body types. I love getting to see an artist's style in their characters, both main and background, especially when it involves so many different body types and creative features.

Also! Rep! Rep! Rep! Trans and queer characters as well as racial diversity! Prill is a delightfully complex 'mean girl' type character, and her complicated friendship with Nyneve makes both girls all the more interesting. Nyneve herself is layered and complicated, processing a lot of bullying and trauma as she hides behind a facade of weakness to keep her and her mother safe.

The overall concept and worldbuilding is super interesting, with magic tied to hair length, a very physical way of showing power that can't really be controlled. People's hair grows differently and length can often be determined by how curly or straight it is, and I am! Fascinated by a structure of magic determined by something people cannot control! Wow! It's definitely an allegory for something, but since this is the review I'm writing while feeling Less Than Optimal, you'll have to forgive me for not totally putting the pieces together.

The story was a bit fast paced at times, and I did have a hard time keeping up with some of the world and magic stuff, but graphic novels kinda have to move fast, that's the nature of that kind of book. It got easier the further I got in and settled into the story. It was a nice way to end the month, still compelling and magically dangerous but much less gritty and terrifying that some of the other books I read this month.

Similar to Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O'Neill and Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Overall, I'm very pleased with this month. I'm about halfway through another book that I might've been able to finish by now if my body wasn't behaving ridiculously, but it is what it is. I hope you're all staying safe, healthy, and sane during this time, and remember to vote early!

Keep writing, friends!

Sam

Literary recommendation: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Media recommendation: Enola Holmes (2020) dir. Harry Bradbeer