Hi, here are some quick reviews of random things I’ve read.
catching stars by cayla keenan
Jayin is a witch who wants to get away; she has been hiding in the slums, making a name for herself as a fearsome legend. But she wants to escape. Maddix is a young man imprisoned for two years for murdering four people; except he was possessed by a powerful male witch, tricked into doing the acts. He manages to escape prison and seeks out a whispered-about group of witchhunters. But Jayin is asked to find Maddix and bring him back.
I’m sure you can guess that Jayin and Maddix will meet, and their stories will converge. You’d be right. This book is relatively predictable, but I didn’t care. It was a fun, high-stakes YA fantasy. I liked reading from both Maddix’s and Jayin’s perspectives. They were distinct and well written. I wanted both of them to succeed and thought they had a good rivals to maybe-more-than-friends energy. Something that bothered me was the slightly repetitive narrative structure: characters are fine > suddenly they find themselves in imminent danger, fighting for their lives > but they find a way out or are saved or lucked out. It’s a pretty fast-paced book that I enjoyed, but I couldn’t help noticing the repetition. I literally have no idea how I got this book, but it was on my shelves. If you might be interested, I’d suggest checking out places that sell used books.
far from the light of heaven by tade thompson
The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.
Answering Campion’s distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system—from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.
I received this book as a surprise ARC from Orbit. I had read Tade Thompson’s Wormwood trilogy before, which I thought was excellent. Far From the Light of Heaven, while a different story altogether, still has that familiar style to it. It feels like a Tade Thompson book, and I can’t explain why. Maybe it’s the seemingly stronger focus on plot—only to realized in hindsight that there was a lot of subtle character work going on too? This book is basically a murder mystery in space. And I’m here for that sort of contained nail-biting panic. I actually ended up reading this via audio, which was so good. This is one you’ll want to just devour.
a true novel by minae mizumura, translated by juliet winters carpenter
A True Novel begins in New York in the 1960s, where we meet Taro, a relentlessly ambitious Japanese immigrant trying to make his fortune. Flashbacks and multilayered stories reveal his life: an impoverished upbringing as an orphan, his eventual rise to wealth and success—despite racial and class prejudice—and an obsession with a girl from an affluent family that has haunted him all his life. A True Novel then widens into an examination of Japan’s westernization and the emergence of a middle class.
This had been on my shelves for years now. But it’s a little over 850 pages and in two separate volumes, so it was just so daunting. It’s a retelling of Wuthering Heights set in postwar Japan and partly New York. The chapters are long, over 100 pages mostly. But when I say that I couldn’t put this book down and that I actively wanted to pick it back up… I will say that technically I wouldn’t classify this as speculative fiction but closer to literary fiction. There is one single scene with speculative, other-worldly elements. But it’s there nonetheless, so! I was so invested in this book and the story within. It’s filled with layers of stories and unreliable narrators and such fleshed-out characters. Definitely happy to have read it.
wildwood whispers by willa reece
At the age of eleven, Mel Smith’s life found its purpose when she met Sarah Ross. Ten years later, Sarah’s sudden death threatens to break her. To fulfill a final promise to her best friend, Mel travels to an idyllic small town nestled in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains. Yet Morgan’s Gap is more than a land of morning mists and deep forest shadows.
There are secrets that call to Mel, in the gaze of the gnarled and knowing woman everyone calls Granny, in a salvaged remedy book filled with the magic of simple mountain traditions, and in the connection, she feels to the Ross homestead and the wilderness around it.
With every taste of sweet honey and tart blackberries, the wildwood twines further into Mel’s broken heart. But a threat lingers in the woods—one that may have something to do with Sarah’s untimely death and that has now set its sight on Mel.
I was given an ARC of this book from Orbit/Redhook by request. This is more like a slice of life book, focused on a young woman as she ends up settling into this strange new life. This is a quiet book. It’s like a warm blanket on a cool, rainy day. Mel, the main protagonist, is warned about not accepting tea from a strange, elderly woman known as Granny—else she could become trapped. But Mel doesn’t care. Or doesn’t truly believe it. I loved reading this and seeing Mel settle into the mysteries of Morgan’s Gap. I think fans of Alex Bledsoe’s Tufa novels might really like this book. A fantastically quiet book that doesn’t try and pull big twists; it was wonderful.
