The nitty-gritty: A fun, laugh-out-loud contemporary take on Sleeping Beauty, with a feminist sensibility, that made me cheer. I’m a huge fan of Alix E. Harrow’s novels, so I was quite curious to see what she would do with the novella format. And I’m happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this! A Spindle Splintered […]
The nitty-gritty: A galaxy-spanning mystery and an unexpected love story, Light Chaser is one of my favorite novellas of the year. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, and this little novella definitely stands out as a happy surprise of 2021. The cover is pretty generic, and in fact […]
The nitty-gritty: Fragments of an old, dead world become something quite new in this emotional and surprisingly hopeful post apocalyptic tale. Catherynne M. Valente is truly one of a kind. I have never read another author that comes close to matching her whimsical writing style, so when I picked up The Past is Red, I […]
The nitty-gritty: A gentle, contemplative tale involving a journey, a robot and tea. This was my first Becky Chambers book, and of course now I want to go back and read her Wayfarers series. What a delightful, feel good story this was! Chambers packs a lot of heart, humor and wisdom into less than 150 […]
The nitty-gritty: A strange and magical reimagining of The Great Gatsby, The Chosen and the Beautiful is full of spellbinding imagery and glorious prose. He drew the invitation from his jacket, and I turned it over in my hands. It was good paper, deep red as if dipped in blood, with gold lettering sunk into […]
The nitty-gritty: Come for the thrilling mecha battles, stay for the cute romance! Hard Reboot was a lot of fun! You might expect from looking at the cover that the story is chock full of mecha fighting goodness—and you would be partially right. But there is a lot more to this little story, and the […]
The nitty-gritty: An inventive retelling with a pop music beat, The Album of Dr. Moreau is a funny, heartwarming surprise. I once made the mistake of telling an Englishman my story, and he turned it into a novel. What do you get when you mash together The Island of Doctor Moreau, a famous boy band […]
The nitty-gritty: A strange, sad, claustrophobic tale, with unexpected moments of beauty and hope. I can honestly say I’ve never read anything quite like We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep. This is a dark, atmospheric tale—verging on oppressive—that weaves together several unusual elements: a submarine called the Leviathan commanded by a religious zealot […]
The nitty-gritty: A beautifully written space opera/fairy tale mash-up with a touch of romance and an emotionally satisfying ending. What a strange and lovely story this was! Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters is a LIttle Mermaid retelling set on a distant planet called Maraven, where sea dwellers and land dwellers are currently involved in a clan war. Atuale […]
The nitty-gritty: Sylvain Neuvel’s latest is an ambitious look at the history of the space race with an intriguing, speculative twist. This is an odd book that I think is going to have a tough time finding an audience, but I absolutely loved the concept, and I think Neuvel probably achieved what he set out […]