September Reviews

September has been such a wild ride. I did some traveling, sat in a car for long periods of time, and have spent the past few days frantically packing for my impending move to Denver. My sister and I signed a lease, so as of October 11th we will officially be in Colorado! Yay! This has meant a lot of panicking, but ultimately we're excited about the move.

That being said, let's just right in with those reviews!

From A Certain Point of View Star Wars Anthology

I picked this book up at a bookstore in Boulder, because I'm on the world's most ridiculous Star Wars kick, and let me tell you, this book filled a void I didn't know I had.

It's a collection of forty stories written by different authors, all from different perspectives over the course of the movie A New Hope. And while that's not my favorite Star Wars movie, it absolutely such a blast. I got to peek into the mind of a jawa, spend time at the Mos Eisley cantina, fly through space with the Yavin flight teams. There were also moments of heartbreak, with a glimpse of Alderaan, the grief of the people left behind and gone on Yavin. But Star Wars is ultimately a story about hope, and this collection reflected that.

I enjoyed some more than others, but that's the nature of an anthology. I was pleased, however, to recognize several of the authors, with notable appearances by Griffin McElroy, Zoraida Cordova, and Wil Wheaton, in addition to a ton of others.

If you're a Star Wars fan,I highly recommend this book, and even if you're not super into the series, it's still a fun space adventure with some neat short stories.

I learned they've released another of these, featuring stories during Empire Strikes Back, which is my favorite of the OG trilogy, so I'll be hunting down a copy of that soon. It doesn't look like they've released a version for Return of the Jedi yet, so uh, @Disney how does a girl get involved in something like that? I love Star Wars and writing, hit me up!!

Similar to: the only other real anthology I think I've read is A Universe of Wishes, which was fun but a completely different thing. It's probably also similar to certain Star Wars books, but I haven't had the chance to read any others yet

The Prince and the Dress Maker by Jen Wang

This is a book that's been on my list for such a long time, and I finally just stepped up and bought it the other day. I then proceeded to read the entire thing that night, it was so cute.

Frances is a seamstress who dreams of creating beyond the scope of her dress shop job, and she's given the opportunity to do so when she's hired to make clothes for Prince Sebastian. But Prince Sebastian doesn't just want royal shirts and pants; he wants daring dresses to wear out at night, away from all the prying eyes that could judge him for being a boy in a dress. And when they team up, they seem unstoppable. But then Frances is offered opportunities, jobs and fashion shows that could skyrocket her career; but also things that could jeopardize Sebastian's secrets. They have to decide where friendship and loyalty lies when following your dreams, and realize that sometimes a little acceptance is all that's needed for a lot of happiness.

First things first, The Prince and the Dressmaker is a graphic novel, so not only did I get to read an absolutely wonderful story, I got to see it all take place in beautiful colors. Wang's art style is as whimsical and fun as it is serious, and it changes so much when you can see the characters physically reacting to things, whether it's heartbreak and horror or hilarity. Her character designs were fantastic, and getting to see the dresses Frances made dance across the pages created a colorful and heartwarming adventure.

For the story, my god do we need more like this. Frances is a prince, but he doesn't let that stop him from enjoying the things he likes, the things that give him confidence. He's just turned sixteen, and his parents are pressuring him to get married, so Sebastian uses his escape as the stunning Lady Crystallia to find himself. Frances is given the opportunity to try something new, and does so with grace and love, never showing any judgment for Sebastian's choice in clothing (other than making him look utterly fabulous). But she also knows her own worth and potential, and as much as she's willing to give things up for Sebastian, she won't jeopardize her whole future. The balance they had to find, one that resulted in mistakes and fear and ultimately acceptance, was a hard road to walk, but I finished feeling so, so light and delighted.

Similar to The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen in a sort of sweet fairy tale way

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

I picked up this book at a book store in Colorado after it was recommended to me by a friend, and boy howdy was it sure a ride.

Every day, Evelyn Hardcastle dies at 11pm, and every day Aiden Bishop wakes up in the body of a different guest at the party, tasked with the mystery of discovering her killer. Eight days and eight hosts, and if he finds the murderer he can leave. But not all the hosts are willing to help, and not everyone in the party is who they seem.

This book was like a wild mix of Agatha Christie and Groundhog Day. I'm usually pretty decent at catching on to what's happening or following foreshadowing to a conclusion, but this was. Holy shit, I didn't see any of it coming. But that's not to say that the puzzle pieces weren't laid out; everything was so interconnected and wild, the days as twisted as the hosts as Aiden tried to solve a murder where nothing was as it seemed. I just couldn't keep up, but I sure did enjoy trying.

Every character acts through a slightly different lens, depending on the host that Aiden inhabited, and getting to see so many facets of so many different people (including the hosts!) was absolutely wild in the best way. I couldn't track the murder investigation, but I could track the characters (and I will say that, while the murder wasn't something I solved, I did guess several of the twists along the way, so I'm not totally demoralized, don't worry). I loved how different they all were, granting different gifts and hinderances to Aiden as he went. Each was integral to solving the murder, even the worst and most vile ones.

There was so much more than a murder going on too, and watching all the pieces slowly come together from an incredibly confusing beginning to a satisfyingly solid end was very fun. There were moments of total terror, but also bits of triumph. I appreciate Turton's language, how he managed to make so many scenes feel different based on the host Aiden was living in, their language and manner tied into his but also differentiated. Certain scenes got a bit long, so I wandered a little bit, but overall his writing is really, really good.

I also loved the setting, very Downton Abbey-esque, with class differences and a lavish estate and blackmail. Getting a time travel-y sort of mystery tied into a roaring-twenties sort of setting was brilliant, a sci-fi combination I don't think I've ever really seen before. This whole thing felt incredibly imaginative, a who-dun-it built on something very unique and cool.

This was a fun, sort of scary read, definitely great for fans of murder mystery looking for something new and wild.

Similar to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Oh man, I saw this book advertised online and bought it as a small book store in Northern California, because I am a total sucker for arranged marriages becoming real love and space worldbuilding.

Prince Kiem of Iskat, a bit of a rebellious but ultimately friendly spirit, has been called upon by the Emperor to finally be useful. He's to marry Count Jainan, Thean representative and recent window of Kiem's cousin, Taam. It's a royal obligation and not much more, at least until Jainan and Kiem start looking into Taam's death and what he'd been hiding leading up to it. Their careful relationship slowly becomes something more as they dig deeper into galactic scandal and political intrigue, until they may be the only ones capable of saving themselves and each other from a plot that could destroy their entire alliance.

This was such a fun book to read. The world building is weird and spacey and totally cool. I couldn't quite keep all the planets and positions straight, but I didn't need to in order to understand what all was happening in the book. Jainan's planet was the one that mattered, and getting some parts in his point of view was more than enough to keep up.

And speaking of, I loved getting to jump between Kiem and Jainan's heads, since it meant maximum about of mutual pining and a delicious amount of the two of them fumbling around each other, falling more and more in love. They were so different, which comes through really well in their narration, but they also both just want the best for the other person. Jainan was dealing with the loss of his previous partner and the way he'd been treated, while Kiem was trying to make sense of what had come before him. They had a lot of missteps as they learned where the other stood on things and why they behaved as they did, but that just made it so much more wonderful to watch them fall in love and begin to understand each other.

The other characters were all really well done too. I love a background cast of complicated individuals, and between Bel and Gairad we got to see a healthy dose of fun interactions with both main characters. Many of the military officers and even professor that Jainan got to know were suspects in Kiem and Jainan's investigation, the pieces floating around but coming together fantastically with a hint of sci-fi magic and political intrigue. This was a puzzle, but one I didn't mind solving a littler slower than usual (probably because my brain was so focused on watching these two men orbit each other so carefully, knowing they were both more afraid for the other person than themselves and not sure at all how to say it).

Overall this had a lot of really fun scenes, really meaningful moments, and a ton of heart and space action. If you like space operas, slow burn allies to friends to lovers, or interplanetary political intrigue, you'll definitely want to check this book out.

Similar to The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer (kind of? I guess?)

And that's it! I started and ended with space, so you know this was a great month for me. I've placed a slight hold on getting any more books until after my move, but that just gives me time to work through the other books on my TBR pile!

Keep writing, friends!

Sam

Literary recommendation: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Media recommendation: I've been binging Star Wars: The Clone Wars, because apparently it's 2008