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[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: the sunlit ruins

Author: Andrea spetién

I’m a sucker for some urban fantasy, and the at is exactly what this is! It’s really fun to read about something that you can tell is very much grounded in reality and our world and that the characters act like one would imagine an ordinary person reacting to stuff would. Because the two teenage girls that are the protagonists are exactly that. Ordinary.

Or well, and ordinary as you can be when you find out that old Mexican gods are real…

It explores the feeling of not understanding someone that you used to be really close to, and how that rift can make things difficult, but also shows that things can get better, and rifts can be mended.

Really beautiful, and compelling story.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: Infinity alchemist

Author: Kacen Callender

Genre: fantasy

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

Description:

Three young alchemists embark on a quest leading them towards unexpected love and unimaginable power – the debut YA fantasy from the author of Felix Ever After, Kacen Callender.

Ash Woods isn’t supposed to perform alchemy – he’ll be arrested if anyone ever finds out. But when he’s caught by the condescending Ramsay Thorne, instead of handing him over to the reds, Ramsay blackmails Ash into helping with a dangerous personal mission: finding the legendary Book of Source, said to make its reader an all-powerful alchemist.

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.

I was really hooked in the beginning. The Author can clearly catch someone’s attention. Unfortunately I lost a bit of interest about halfway in.

I would have liked to see the relationship between Ash and Ramsey take a bit more time, but that might just be me being a little too old to be the intended audience for the book. I know I would have loved this when I was fifteen.

I really like the world, and there is a logic to it, which feels very welcoming. I love that alchemy is something inherent in all people, but to at it is still being highly controlled. That is a thing that I don’t see that often, and it war a really cool way to build to the world.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: Mortal tether

Author: Candice Jarrett

Genre: sci-fi, post apocalypse

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

Description

Like AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER, Candice Jarrett's debut novel MORTAL TETHER masterfully illustrates a child's eye view of family and friendship against the backdrop of a brutally divided and dangerous world. This book is ideal for fans who enjoy STRANGER THINGS, THE HUNGER GAMES, and LORD OF THE FLIES.

An airborne virus twisted all adults on the planet into immortal monsters that hunt children each nightfall. These creatures can never die. But they can kill. And the infection is spreading.

Days shy of fourteen, Amaia knows she can't save the world. She's got snark and attitude for days, but the upper body strength of a hamster. When Amaia teams up with the cute boy from across the street to rescue an orphaned infant from a gruesome fate, the pair of teens must dig deep for their courage and level up their survival skills STAT. The baby's cries are a screeching dinner bell for hordes of hungry geists, and if Amaia can't keep this baby quiet, she'll be next on the menu.

As Amaia fights both for her new family's survival and to uncover the truth of her older brother Carlos' disappearance, a civilization poisoned by fear threatens to destroy anyone she dares to love.

Amaia will find the people she runs to for help... are the deadliest monsters of all.

MORTAL TETHER is YA post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction with an all-teen cast appropriate for ages 13 and up. Its core themes include how fear-driven tribalization disintegrates society, the fight to preserve innocence in the brutal world our parents built, as well as explorations of faith and family from a coming-of-age perspective. An expertly crafted combination of heart-pounding thrills intertwined with tender moments that stay with you long after you turn the last page.

This books reads like a tv show!

The characters are really compelling, and don’t really do the normal apocalypse stuff that is suspected, but act like someone who knows the genre. It was really interesting to see these two teens start to see each other as friends and eventually as family, because of everything that happened to them.

It’s also interesting to see some other aspects of post apocalyptic settlements that you don’t normally see. This is specifically directed at Unity, and how that whole place works.

The books feels really dynamic, and the flow is great. I might actually buy this.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: Revelation

Author: Donna J. W. Munro

Genre: fantasy/sci-fi

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

In a dark future, people with money live in doomed cities and use the recently deceased as repurposed servants and workers called poppets. Ellie DesLoge is the teen heiress of the company that makes and distributes poppets–your basic reprogrammed flesh robot complete with training chips and kill switches. If Ellie does everything her Aunt Cordelia says, she’ll have a life of wealth and power. If she chooses to be what is planned for her, life will be perfect.

Everything she ever dreamed. But something about her sweet poppet Thom goes against what Aunt Cordelia and tradition have taught her. Will she choose to believe what everyone knows is true or will she follow what her heart tells her about Thom? Her choice will change the world.

Really cool setting!

I love the hints throughout the beginning of the book that something isn’t right, and that it mounts to something bigger.

The pacing felt very natural and everything flowed on really nicely. Most of the characters had depth, and felt real, and reacted like someone in that situation would react.

I love the little bits of world build that happens in between the chapters with excerpts of documents from the world, making it real old and real. It also helps to educate the audience on why the world looks like it does.

I am waiting patiently for the sequel.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: The mist-walker

Author: Stéphane Fert

Genre: graphic novel, fantasy, sci-fi

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

One day, everything was lost in the mist. No, not those little morning wisps or the thin type that follows rain. The really dense stuff. A pea-souper, a dark fog, thick and black like atomized ink. A mist that engulfs everything. But the mist also left something behind: a mutant, an ogress—or perhaps just a little girl that a grouchy old witch would decide to call Temperance and who would be brought up in a quiet village by a group of contented old women. Then one day, the mist returns. It wants her back. Now it’s time for the witches to dust off their charms and try to remember their old incantations and kung fu techniques as they set out on a great adventure that will determine young Temperance’s destiny.

I am in love with the art style of his book! It so pretty! All the characters have different bodyshapes, and are characterized partly through that. An extremely cool concept.

If I have to be nitpicky the story got a little long winded at times, but that really is a minor problem.

The introduction was so good, and it really gives a great impression on how the story is going to work, and the premise of this world.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

The belly of the beast

Charles Armstrong

Genre: middle grade, fantasy, sci-if

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

Sera Skohlidon longs for adventure, to be like the brave crusaders of lore. In her guarded imagination, fauns have rejected the Royal Coven, the Coven’s magic, and the questionable trades faunkind makes for it. One day, her quest for answers unearths a family secret that draws her to the heart of the Coven's malfeasance. What is the true source of her world's magic? With the help of a shapeshifting deadringer, Sera embarks on an epic journey that sharpens her self-image, emboldens newfound confidence with a dashing, cavalier classmate, and levels the magical playing field.

There was a lot that happened in this book, but it was tied together very nicely so it didn’t feel rushed at all!

I love the mix of magic and science, and how it is used to control people. It works as a great metaphor for media control in todays society, while keeping it simple enough to be understood.

The horror that comes with realizations later on on the book is fantastic! I cried on the bus. And there were hints dropped though out the book, too, so if you really wanted to you could definitely figure it out before.

Really cool setting too! Would definitely re-read.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: When the night bells ring

Author: Jo Kaplan

Genre: Horror

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

Two climate refugees descend into the cool darkness of an old mine where they find a settler’s diary that whispers of horrors haunting the ghost town, only to realize that the caved-in tunnels are haunted still. 

Wow!

This is precisely the type of horror that I like to read! A well thought out story, and from the beginning you have that creeping sense that something is wrong.

I love that a great deal of the book is the diary, and that it’s incorporated in such a good way. And the way the two timelines interact with each other is phenomenal.

I really didn’t think I would root this much for all the characters, but here I am!

Sometimes it gets a little too long winded, but that is really a minor issue on my part, and my personal preference.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: War

Author: Laura Thalassa

Genre: Paranormal Romance

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

They came to earth—Pestilence, War, Famine, Death—four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity.

They came to earth, and they came to end us all.

The day Jerusalem falls to the horsemen, Miriam Elmahdy knows her life is over. Houses are burning, the streets run red with blood, and a traitorous army is massacring her people. There is no surviving this, especially not once Miriam catches the eye of War himself. But when the massive and terrifying horseman corners Miriam, he calls her his heaven-sent wife, and instead of killing her, he takes her back to his camp.

Now Miriam faces a terrifying future, helplessly watching her world burn town by town, and the one responsible for it is her seemingly indestructible "husband," who refuses to let her go. But there's another side to him, one that's gentle and loving and set on winning her over, and she might not be strong enough to resist.

However, if there's one thing Miriam has learned, it's that love and war cannot coexist. She must make the ultimate choice: surrender to War and watch humankind fall, or sacrifice everything to stop him.

This book is not as strong as the first book, I must admit. While the romance were well written stylistically, the plot of it rubbed me the wrong way. I can enjoy a bit of dark romance, but with War keeping the main character agains her will, and labeling her his wife, it felt extremely forced, and unhealthy. This as a base of the relationship makes it feel as the love that does bloom from it is more of a Stockholm syndrome type of thing.

It was, however, really interesting to have a few chapters from War’s point of view. That really helped the story along at the end.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: The blood queen

Author: David H. Millar

Genre: historical fantasy

⭐️ ⭐️/5

“It is a king’s decision,” said Brion.

“It will not be you who deceives and delivers the lamb to the butcher’s block,” retorted Eimhir.

True evil is a persistent and tenacious beast. Its desire for existence is eternal and insatiable. It needs to infect only one mind for its insidious philosophy to take root and spread.

It is 394 B.C. At a remote loch in the highlands of Northern Albu, a priest sacrifices nine innocents. Below the water’s surface, a shape feeds on their blood and begins to take form. Soon it becomes sentient and begins to hunt. Sidheag has risen.

Humans cannot defeat the abomination. Neither can Mongfhionn, the powerful leader of the demi-goddesses of the Aes Sidhe. The only remedy is the Blood Queen and Gràinne is the sole heir to that throne. Will the Blood Queen stand alongside Mongfhionn to confront Sidheag?

Yet the cost for Gràinne may be too much—unless her daughter, Brianag, is in jeopardy.

Passions, always near the surface of the Celts, burst into flames in The Blood Queen where father is pitted against son; mother against daughter; sister against sister; brother against sister; and father against daughter.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but unfortunately I found it a bit hard to get into. There are a lot of characters introduced at once, so it is hard to keep track of them all.

There is also quite a bit of battles and war in the book, which is not an objectively bad thing, it’s just not my cup of tea.

I had a bit of a hard time grasping the plot of the book, but that might just be me having a hard time keeping the characters apart since I’m not used to only having Irish and Scottish names on the characters.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: love the sinner

Author: Mo Moshaty

Genre: horror

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

According to Dante, a sin is the misdirection of love—the human will, or essentially, the direction of our beings. Love the Sinner is an examination of just how those sins can kaleidoscope into horrific consequences creating a distorted and deadly landscape. These stories stand stark before you in full glaring misstep and macabre to show the human psyche in all its twisted reality.

From grief and its rage to medical meddling to ensure a new world order to bloody revenge within a quantum leap, these stories seek to solidify one absolute truth: man is the scariest monster.

I love the concept. Eight short stories all based in sin, and exploring hem in a wonderfully horrific way.

There was a good variation to them, in all aspects. The varying length of them was really good, the shortest being just one page! All of them were very impactful.

It’s insane how well the descriptions work, and how they shape the story depending on what sin it is about. It makes it feel like more than it is in a way.

Really cool book!

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: The spirit bares its teeth

Author: Andrew Joseph White

Genre: Horror, historical fiction

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

New York Times bestselling author Andrew Joseph White returns with the transgressive gothic horror of our time!

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. When the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its guts to the world—if the school doesn’t break him first.

Featuring an autistic trans protagonist in a historical setting, Andrew Joseph White’s much-anticipated sophomore novel does not back down from exposing the violence of the patriarchy and the harm inflicted on trans youth who are forced into conformity.

I could not put this book down!

Everything feels very put together from behind to end. The author had an idea in mind and he executed it wonderfully.

It’s really interesting to read about trans people in non-contemporary settings, same with autism, so you can imagine that I liked the mix!

It really felt that the author is both trans and autistic, because the representation of them both in the text felt very real, like an actual lived experience. But with more ghosts.

Speaking of the ghosts, the implementation of black pages to show their thoughts! So good!

I love that Silas comes to terms with himself through the book, despite the numerous attempts to make him conform to the model of a good aristocratic girl. And that it is contrasted by Daphne is marvelous.

The horror bits a gruesome, with anatomical language making them feel very objective and real. I also love that it works as a way to characterize Silas.

All in all a wonderful, horrifying story to read!

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions

Author: Lina Rather

Genre: historical fantasy

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

In 17th-century London, unnatural babies are being born, with eyes made for the dark and webbed digits suited to the sea.

Sarah Davis is intimately familiar with such strangeness—having hidden her uncanny nature all her life and fled to London under suspicious circumstances, Sarah starts over as a midwife’s apprentice to a member of the illegal Worshipful Company of Midwives, hoping to carve out for herself an independent life. But with each new unnatural birth, the fear in London grows of the Devil's work.

When the wealthy Lady Wren hires her to see her through her pregnancy, Sarah quickly becomes a favorite of her husband, the famous architect Lord Christopher Wren, whose interest in the uncanny borders on obsession. Sarah soon finds herself caught in a web of magic and intrigue created by those who want to use her power for themselves, and whose pursuits threaten to unmake the earth itself.

A midwife protagonist in fantasy! Amazing!

I love the character descriptions in this book. They really paint a picture.

In general the plot feels like a movie. It is so smooth.

The character are a tad bit flat, but not to a way that it impacts the story in a major way.

I honestly have never read descriptions that for so well into the narrative like the ones on this story. It all just works for the vibe!

The midwifery also works as a great perspective on the premise of the book, strange children are being born, and it’s refreshing to have an occupation be that central to the story.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: The Pomegranate Gate

Author: Ariel Kaplan

Genre: fantasy

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

The first adventure in the Mirror Realm Cycle, a Spanish Inquisition-era fantasy trilogy inspired by Jewish folklore, with echoes of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden.

Toba Peres can speak, but not shout; sleep, but not dream. She can write with both hands at once, in different languages, but she keeps her talents hidden at her grandparents’ behest. 

Naftaly Cresques sees things that aren’t real, and dreams things that are. Always the family disappointment, Naftaly would still risk his life to honor his father’s last wishes. 

After the Queen demands every Jew convert or face banishment, Toba and Naftaly are among thousands of Jews who flee their homes. Defying royal orders to abandon all possessions, Toba keeps an amulet she must never take off; Naftaly smuggles a centuries-old book he’s forbidden to read. But the Inquisition is hunting these particular treasures–and they’re not hunting alone.

Toba stumbles through a pomegranate grove into the mirror realm of the Mazik: mythical, terrible immortals with an Inquisition of their own, equally cruel and even more powerful. With the Mazik kingdoms in political turmoil, this Inquisition readies its bid to control both realms.

In each world, Toba and Naftaly must evade both Inquisitions long enough to unravel the connection between their family heirlooms and the realm of the Mazik. Their fates are tied to this strange place, and it’s up to them to save it. 

The world is really cool! I just had a hard time getting a grip on the plot.

Everything was really fleshed out, and it really felt like a full world. And the characters are well thought out.

The historical tie ins are really good, and definitely serves their purpose of making this seem like an old folk tale, which add a fun little spin on the book.

I however lost the plot a bit after about a third. I think this book would be better served reading a little bit at a time and then taking time in between to digest and understand what happened.

The mazik are really cool, and the way the two main character ties in to that I really enjoy!

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: Mercury

Author: Lloyd Hall

Genre: sci-fi, ya

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

Aboard the colony ship, Mercury, 19-year-old Lucy yearns to know more about her deceased father, much to the ire of her mother, the captain.

When a mysterious meteor strands Lucy twenty years in the past, she finds herself face-to-face with her teenage mother and realizes they may have more in common than she originally thought.

As rifts in space threaten to destroy the Mercury, Lucy looks for a way to save the entire ship and, with any luck, get back to her own time.

I would have gone absolutely feral for this book when I was younger! Unfortunately, i now am a little bit too old to fully enjoy it. It still manages to give me that sense of nostalgia though.

It is very well written and thought out, but I just didn’t get that caught up in the story. I enjoyed it, and it is definitely something I would read, so I don’t know why. Sometimes books are just like that I guess.

The characters felt pretty fleshed out. Some felt a little flat, but not to the point where it took away from the story.

The illustrations! I love them! It adds a little break in the text that makes the message land better. Absolutely gorgeous too, I could definitely have them printed on my wall.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: Pestilence

Author: Laura Thalassa

Genre: romance

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

Description:

They came to earth—Pestilence, War, Famine, Death—four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity.

They came to earth, and they came to end us all.

When Pestilence, the first of the horsemen, comes for Sara Burn's town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the angelic-looking horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed.

Too bad no one told her Pestilence can't be killed.

Alive and furious, the horseman takes Sara prisoner, determined to make her suffer for impeding his mission. Despite her pleas, nothing and no one gets in the way of his orders to destroy humankind. Only, the longer Pestilence spends beside Sara's bravery and compassion, the more he seems to understand her, and understand humanity. And the longer Sara travels with Pestilence and his plague, the more uncertain she grows about his true feelings toward her…and hers toward him.

Sara might still be able to save the world, but she'll have to sacrifice her heart in the process.

Review:

Absolutely gorgeous sentence work! The beginning of the book had me hooked. The descriptions are absolutely wonderful.

I am usually not much of a romance reader, but I really liked this one. It took some time for the romance to set in, and for us to get to know both of the characters, and their complexities.

And they are complex. They feel like actual people!

I loved seeing Pestilence start to care for Sarah, and through her humanity as a whole.

I would have liked for it to go more into the friendship area before we started romancing, but that’s just my personal opinion.

I could define see this being a movie.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: A Cast of Crows

Author: Various

Genre: Steampunk

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

Life and Death and All Points In Between

Crows have seen it all, and though they haven’t always lived to tell the tale, still they play their part. We present ten tales inspired by the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, paying tribute to his undying fascination with mankind’s decaying state, both mental and physical.

In conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival, we bring you stories by:

Aaron Rosenberg * David Lee Summers * Judi Fleming * Dana Fraedrich * James Chambers * Jessica Lucci * Doc Coleman * Michelle D. Sonnier * Danielle Ackley-McPhail * Ef Deal

You can tell that all of them are based of Poe’s poem, but they way that the authors have twisted it into something new and exciting is truly remarkable. All of them have a more serious tone, but the heaviness still varies, so it doesn’t get too much.

The steampunk setting really worked with the themes as well. All of them had varying degrees of stereotypical steampunk-ness, some leaning heavily into cogs and clockwork, while in some it kept more in he background, which was quite refreshing to see.

I will definitely be re-reading this in the future!

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: The Basilisk Throne

Author: Greg Keyes

Genre: Fantasy

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

Master and Commander meets A Game of Thrones and Pirates of the Carribean. Rapid-paced high fantasy with all-out combat on the high seas, and a canny young woman who faces the hidden threats of an imperial court. Yet the key to defeating a sorcerous enemy may lie with a wild rogue and the slave of a maniac.

For centuries those on the Basilisk Throne have ruled every continent, brutally enslaving the human inhabitants. But now, after endless wars, the three human empires of Ophion, Velesa, and Modjal have pushed the inhuman Drehhu back to their heartland and are united in one final, massive assault to defeat them forever. It’s been tried before, but the infernal weapons and dark magic of the Drehhu have always triumphed. Basilisk has never fallen.

Commanding his merchant fleet in support of the human forces, Alastor Nevelon and his son Crespin set sail against the enemy—and this time they have their own secret weapons. The Drehhu, however, do not have a monopoly on deceit. or ambition. Alistor is forced to send his daughter Chrysanthe to the capitol city Ophion Magne as a "token" of his loyalty. He does so freely, for he is certain of treachery within the very empire he serves. After all, whomever controls the Basilisk Throne can control the world. He instructs Chrysanthe to use her considerable intellect to discover whatever plots may be afoot in the heart of Ophion. Chrysanthe agrees, knowing that in doing so she enters a dangerous place where courtly manners hide murderous intentions.

While nations collide and the conflict explodes, the true key to defeating the Drehhu may lie in a remote mountain stronghold, a wild rogue known as Hound, and Ammolite, the young slave of a sorcerer more ancient than any nation and whose true loyalties are entirely unknown.

There are a lot of main characters in this book! In the beginning this makes it a bit hard to fully get a hang of the story, but once you’ve gotten your head around who is who you can truly appreciate the world building behind this book.

It feels like the world has an actual history, and even though that makes the world feel alive, it also makes the story a little harder to get into.

I feel like a little in universe history book could be written and published. It might also make the book a little more accessible.

I found it beneficial to not think about the details of the text, but to just take in the story as a whole, not minding if there were things that you didn’t remember from earlier. It will probably be a lot easier if I were to reread the book.

The fantasy theme was quite like game of thrones, in that there is magic and such, but the majority of people are ordinary humans who can’t do it.

When I first started I didn’t think that much of it, but is definitely grew in me. If there were to be a sequel I would definitely buy that!