Eight Book Minimum: Expectations and Entitlement

[spindizzy]

1. The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin [Jump]


2. Until the Full Moon Volumes One and Two by Sanami Matoh [Jump]


3. A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles [Jump]


4. A Gentleman's Position by KJ Charles [Jump]


5. The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado [Jump]


6. The Mussel Eater by Octavia Cade [Jump]


7. The Cure by Malinda Lo [Jump]


8. Yona of the Dawn Volumes Two - Eight by Kizuho Kusanagi [Jump]


9. Hard Rock by Akane Abe [Jump]


10. The Case Study of Vanitas Volume One by Jun Mochizuki [Jump]


11. Mockingbird Volume One: I Can Explain by Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, and Joëlle Jones [Jump]


12. Mockingbird Volume Two: My Feminist Agenda by Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, and Joëlle Jones [Jump]


13. The Price of Meat by KJ Charles [Jump]


14. Young Avengers Volume One: Style > Substance by Keiron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton [Jump]


15. Toad Words and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher [Jump]


16. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey [Jump]


17. The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher [Jump]


18. Zombie Economics by Lisa Desjardins and Rick Emerson [Jump]


19. Brave Chef Brianna by Sam Sykes and Selina Espiritu [Jump]


20. Yona of the Dawn Volume Nine by Kizuho Kusagi [Jump]

1. The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin [Top]

This is so good. I recommend reading it as soon after The Fifth Season as you can, because it picks back up pretty much in the middle of a conversation, and it might throw you a bit if you've left it a while. Also, I am going to try to keep it as unspoilery as I can, but there are some things that I can't discuss without spoilers so bear that in mind.

Obviously, due to the way that The Fifth Season resolved it, The Obelisk Gate can't keep the three-threaded narrative, so instead it keeps the second person narrative for Essun and brings in Nassun as a POV character. Both parts of this are fascinating. It's revealed that the second person narration is actually to Essun (which makes me really worried about what happens to her in The Stone Sky) in much the same way that the narration in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is to someone else. But this narrative choice in the Broken Earth trilogy means that the narrator is now fundamentally unreliable, because they explicitly don't want to tell Essun certain things, or want her to believe certain things. But it does mean that the narrator can put asides in like "He would have found out anyway," which is a reassurance that I like to see?

And Nassun's point of view is really interesting, especially because she was pretty much a McGuffin in The Fifth Season, something that Essun was seeking instead of a person of her own. It's tempting for me to compare her point of view to Damaya's because she's in a similar situation; she's in the care of a man WHO WILL HURT HER, and she flees straight from her family to Schaffa because she feels like she's safer with him than with them. And it's a valid comparison, especially because it's a good way to see how different Schaffa's approach is to her than to Damaya, but I'm honestly more interested in the light this sheds on her relationship with Essun. In the first book, Essun is chasing after her because she loves Nassun and wants to hurt Jija, and that is the only view we get on Nassun; we can possibly extrapolate how she treated her children from how she treats Hoa. From Nassun's point of view, we get the nuances of this. We get Essun hurting Nassun in the same ways that she was hurt (in the same ways that Schaffa hurt her) because that is all Essun knows. It was the only way that Essun knew to protect her, and seeing this pain handed down, and seeing Nassun run from the mother who hurt her to the person who hurt her mother is fascinating and horrifying in equal measure.

(That question though. That question.)

Both Essun and Nassun do such terrible, horrific things because they're in pain and want to protect what they care for, and what makes it worse is that everyone thinks they're just doing what they can to survive, even when what they're doing is terrible. Without spoilers: the part where Essun finally loses her temper and puts her foot down with her community is so validating; in a narrative that spends so much time on the horrible choices that people make and the awful things these choices can lead to (like the ending of the book!), someone saying no was satisfying.

(It was painful to realise how little she'd processed her son being dead, and I knew that, because she hasn't had time, but also it was so painful to see that and the repercussions.)

One final point: one of my favourite tropes ever is "I would burn the world for you and lay the ashes at your feet," and the story has multiple characters doing that in ways that directly conflict with the desires of other characters. Sometimes even the character that they would burn the world for.

I don't think anyone is surviving The Stone Sky.

Absolutely recommended.

2. Until the Full Moon Volumes One and Two by Sanami Matoh [Top]
I have a deep fondness for Sanami Matoh's work; she's the creator of Fake, which was the first canon m/m story I ever encountered in the real world as a thing that I could actually have (I'm not saying that this explains how invested I am in trashy queer police procedurals, but...)

That said: oh god no. This was a jumbled mess. A playboy vampire ends up engaged to a half-vampire/half-werewolf guy who transforms into a woman at the full moon instead of a wolf. The gender politics are weirdly binary, the feelings don't seem to have been dealt with in any real depth, there's a story arc where one of the leads transforms into a child... Seriously, by the end of it I was reading it just out of spite because I was super done.

(Extra minus points: the copy editing is Bad. Not full-on Tokyopop levels of bad, but there are characters being referred to by the wrong names throughout the books and really basic typos.)

I do not recommend it. I am possibly even going so far as to ANTI-rec it, even if you're a fan of Sanami Matoh's other works.



3. A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles [Top]
At one point in her panel at Nine Worlds, KJ Charles said that she'd struggled when she was writing this one, because the Conservatives had just won an election and writing about a Tory main character wasn't working. Then she mentioned it to a friend who said "Doesn't your Tory have a humiliation kink? Use it!"

That is basically the premise of the book: a prominent Tory politician has a standing weekly appointment for kinky sex with a notorious radical pamphleteer that he's been trying to have arrested for months.

Neither of them know who the other one is.

Somehow everything goes better than expected!

Weirdly I liked the relationship in this one a lot more than the actual plot; the plot is based on an actual scheme that actually happened, but the relationship starts off based on mutual respect and radically differing opinions on books, goes through hell (especially with Dominic's ridiculous friends), and starts climbing its way back up! Society of Gentlemen is not my favourite of KJ Charles' series, but A Seditious Affair is probably the best of them.

4. A Gentleman's Position by KJ Charles [Top]
True story, this is the one that I read through all of the other Society of Gentlemen books for. My expectations were HIGH. Scheming mastermind servant and his master who trusts him absolutely and without question? Sign me up!

... I may have set my expectations too high, guys.

It was fine? Cyprian being a master manipulator and running everyone else around at his beck and call was wonderful and what I wanted (the resolution of Ash's problem at the end of satisfying in terms of its Rhube-Goldberg perfection, which is the best way for schemes to go), but the relationship drama was... Hm. I like melodrama and awareness of power dynamics, but this went maybe too far for me? I know, I know, this is never a problem I normally have, but see also: inflated expectations ruining everything. I might try reading it over again to see if it reads better this time around, but as it is I know there are a lot of things I like here, I just have trouble getting through Privilege McPig-headed missing the point repeatedly to get to it.

5. The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado [Top]
In a strange change of pace, I actually recommended this one to bookgazing instead of the other way around! My pitch to Jodie was that it's a story about male entitlement and urban legends, and that's true! The Husband Stitch is about a woman who falls in lust with and marries a man, making only one condition of him: that he never tries to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. It goes exactly as you'd expect from there. Her story weaves in and out of urban legends, absolutely skewering when necessary, and working beautifully into the theme of giving and giving and giving until —

Her husband demands so much of her – not just his repeated desire to touch her ribbon, the one thing she has forbidden him, but also that he knows everything about her, all of her secrets and shames and fantasies (even the ones that she doesn't want to give!), and teaches that entitlement to their son, who changes his attitude from acceptance of her to also making demands of her. I can't get over the way that her husband and her doctor ignore her and joke about her while she's in labour (True story: I did not know what a "husband stitch" was and when I found out I hissed at my phone.); I could absolutely believe it, but it's the sort of detail that makes him more disappointing, despite him not being actively evil? (Also, the fact that there's more than one woman with a ribbon, and they don't talk about it, even though they know that's there? That feels realistic.)

The narration instructions in the story keep pinging me as a strange addition, but they really establish way characters are seen right from the start – the protagonist should sound "forgettable" and interchangeable with any other woman; her husband "robust with his own good fortune." I feel like the narration is making explicit how she is perceived, how the men she is encountering are treating her, and it works really well for that. It's frustrating (intentionally) and I admire this story intensely.

6. The Mussel Eater by Octavia Cade [Top]
The Mussel Eater is a story of male entitlement, about a man who claims to love the Pania (in this story, a sea-guardian who protects the wildlife, although I believe that she is a mythological figure) for all of her wildness and beauty, but still wants to change literally every single part of her to suit him better with no concern for her at all, and I hate him so much.

Our very own bookgazing has talked about The Mussel Eater before, and I recommend reading her thoughts! I come at this story from the perspective of absolutely despising the point of view character and his absolute entitlement. From the very beginning he feels entitled to be in her space, touching her and fiddling with her appearance despite the fact that she often doesn't like what he does! And he doesn't seem to care about her as much as he cares about showing her off, which is just... Kudos for portraying a low-level gross dude in a very believable way! In addition to that believable narrator, the prose is very pretty, portraying the Pania's monstrous nature quickly and beautifully, and I love the way that the narration emphasises those details and her reactions to the cooked food Karitoki tries to entice her with.

I found the ending of the story to be satisfying, if not necessarily surprising, and if you're in the mood for a story of monstrous women dealing with a man who wants to change them this might be for you!

[Connection disclaimer: this story is published by The Book Smugglers, who I do know outside of publishing!]

7. The Cure by Malinda Lo [Top]
Another one that bookgazing reviewed in-depth (I didn't actually go raiding Stories That Jodie Has Reviewed, I pruned the short fiction tabs in my tablet, which included this Book Riot rec list of monstrous and feminist stories)! In The Cure, a young woman is sent to a sanitorium to cure her "hysteria", and it is testament to Malinda Lo's skill that its descriptions of the main character's "treatment" makes me even more furious than that premise. The glimpses of other women trapped as she is, and the way she is rescued/rescues herself, works really well! Especially the way the The Cure draws on vampire mythology for it. Recommended if you're ready to be angry about historical treatment of women with bonus vampirism.

[Caution warning: false medical diagnosis, medical torture?]



8. Yona of the Dawn Volumes Two-Eight [Top]
I reviewed the first volume of Yona of the Dawn already, and then I... Accidentally ended up mainlining the next seven volumes in one day because they were on sale?

It's so good.

After the assassination of her father, Yona is rescued to the wilderness by her bodyguard, Hak; from there, she chooses not to go into hiding, but to gain the power she needs to protect herself, Hak, and her people. And it's the choices that Yona makes throughout this series that really sell it for me? Yona chooses – and keeps choosing – to respect people and help them and keep learning about the country she's the princess of, and to do whatever work she needs to do to be worthy of trust and to help people? It's amazing character growth from the sheltered princess of volume one!

These choices come in the structure of a classic "collect your magical guardians" shoujo manga; Yona travels around looking for the descendants of warriors with dragon blood who are the only ones strong enough to protect her and help her achieve her goals (once she's worked out what they are), because of course. I really like the world building of this, the way that none of them have the same reaction to or experience of their powers, and how there is explicit discussion of whether it's right that they feel magically compelled to follow Yona. It also helps that their experiences are woven into the world building of the country, regardless of whether they're deliberately withdrawn from it or out in the world. (And there is a lot of ridiculousness based off all of their clashing personalities; I know there is a lot of serious things going on, but also there is a lot of silliness!)

The thing that is probably best about Yona of the Dawn though: it's complex! Yona hates the man that murdered her father, but can't bring herself to hurt him! The former king was beloved by the man cast and had good ideals, but was also an objectively neglectful ruler who let his people suffer! The new king is a traitor and a murderer, but also doing his best to improve the situation for the entire country, and he's really good at it! And I'm ninety percent certain that there's not going to be a way to reconcile all of this that doesn't break all of the characters

(Also, there is a romance that is either one-sided pining, or extremely slow-burn and either way I die happy.)

[Caution warning: sexual harrassment, mostly offscreen abuse]



9. Hard Rock by Akane Abe [Top]
There's no real depth, I couldn't begin to care about any of the characters, and there is not a single relationship that didn't involve dubious consent. The art was fine, but on the whole this manga was Not Great. If you want a story about Troubled Teens breaking up their band and struggling with their relationships, it might be for you, but it wasn't enjoyable for me.

10. The Case Study of Vanitas Volume One by Jun Mochizuki [Top]
As you may have gathered from all of the yelling about Pandora Hearts: I enjoy Jun Mochizuki's work! Which is why when I realised that she had a new series out, I pounced.

The Case Study of Vanitas is deeply weird. Like, yes, I know, I read all of Pandora Hearts, but even by those standards it's weird. It's set in a steampunk Paris where airships loom over the landscape and vampires are apparently a) roaming around, b) potentially succumbing to a corruption that warps their names and thus their very beings! Into this come Noe, who is looking for the grimoire of Vanitas, and the current holder of the grimoire, a mad human who is determined to cure vampires of this corruption whether they want him to or not.

Okay, so: Vanitas the character is a mess. Like full-on if I started listing all the things he did that I am side-eying, I might as well put half the book into your hands and go "This, just all of this." The battles are visually cool, the way that the curse afflicting the vampires is shown and handled is super interesting and I would be down for an anime that was twenty-four episodes of just that? Noe and his tragic backstory seem like they're going to be interesting? The female characters seem... Underused at best, and actively fridged at worst? HM.

It's very pretty, as can be expected, but I'm honestly not sure that I'd keep buying it in hardcopy? Probably going to try to get it from the library if I can, because I'm honestly not sure I'd enjoy it enough to keep it.

11. Mockingbird Volume One: I Can Explain by Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk and Joëlle Jones [Top]
I had no idea what to expect from this -- my main exposure to Mockingbird as a character came from Matt Fraction's Hawkeye run, where she doesn't really get a look in, and my exposure to this run came from Chelsea Cain getting harassed over it.

As first real exposures go, this is pretty great! The story isn't necessarily coherent, but the framing device – Bobbi going to her Shield Mandated Raised-From-The-Dead Health Check-Ups in volume one, with the remaining volumes providing the context for what she was doing beforehand – is really fun, and the way the story builds on itself works for me even if the end result doesn't quite. Plus, I really like Bobbi's missions! They are fun, they have the occasional scathing social commentary, her relationships actually seem interesting for all that I can't tell Hunter and Clint Barton apart, and I like that Bobbi's background as a scientist is a recurring influence on her narration and her solutions. ... Even if her solution to the ultimate problem made me go "NO CAN YOU NOT SEE THE OBVIOUS PLOT DEVELOPMENT GOING ON HERE?!" a lot.

(Also I would like it noted that there is a section where Mockingbird shows up in literal fetishwear and my first thought was to try to work out which other superheroine she was dressed up as before I thought of fetish gear, which I think says a lot about both me and the fashion of female superheroes when I used to read them regularly. Possibly this is Mockingbird lampshading it?)

But yes, it's fun! If you want a female comic lead, this is not a bad one to go for.



12. Mockingbird Volume Two: My Feminist Agenda by Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk and Joëlle Jones [Top]
Mockingbird Volume Two: My Feminist Agenda by
Clint Barton is on trial for murder, and Bobbi Morse has been lured away to an Avengers fan-cruise to the Bermuda Triangle (no really) by someone who promises that they can help. Also there are corgis.

This one didn't work for me quite as well as the first one. Possibly because it's a Civil War II tie-in story and we know how I feel about those! Possibly because Hunter is pretty much just a palette-swap of Hawkeye here! Possibly because, as it's a fan convention, there are cameos from Big Name Fans that I found kinda distracting? (Like, I recognised enough of the names to know that some of the ones I don't were PROBABLY real? And then started trying to work out who they were.)

The art's still good! Bobbi being a badass femme nerd who is still kind of a trainwreck is super great! The plot is more of a straight line than volumes one and makes marginally more sense! It just... Also relies on more knowledge of current canon than I have, so I was a bit like "Ehhh."

... Then again, it's heavily implied that she goes on holiday with Hunter and Hawkeye for the purposes of threesomes, and that plus corgis is worth the price of admission!

13. The Price of Meat by KJ Charles [Top]
KJ Charles' newest story is a queer penny-dreadful inspired horror short; Johanna Oakley is attempting to rescue her girlfriend from an asylum, and trades spying on a potentially cannibalistic barber for the chance of Arabella's release. It's so interesting, and I am going to do a proper review for the Lesbrary, I swear. The descriptions are gross and visceral, and the details that are picked out are the ones that really get a reaction. And the queer relationships are definitely a background feature of the story – due to the pastiche tone the story's written in, as far as I can tell? It's definitely different in style and tone from KJ Charles' other works if that's what you're expecting, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

(I'll be honest with you; the dynamic between the two male secondary characters was honestly what I wanted from Jackdaw. I know why I didn't get that, but I'm still sad that it's here and not there.)

[Caution warning: cannibalism, false imprisonment, medical torture, offscreen abuse, threat of sexual assault, medical disfigurement]

14. Young Avengers Volume One: Style > Substance by Keiron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton [Top]
SOMEHOW this is the first book I've read with America Chavez in it.

Q: But isn't she an ass-kicking princess from another dimension who likes to throw sharks at her problems?
A: Yes.
Q: And isn't that exactly the type of protagonist you like to read about?
A: Yes.
Q: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!

So, anyway, this story follows Billy (Young Avenger and professional reality bender) trying to do something nice for his boyfriend Teddy (Young Avenger, half-alien prince, shapeshifter at large) and bring his mother back from the dead through the medium of alternate realities. This, as can be expected, Does Not Go To Plan. Especially because Kate Bishop (Young Avenger, has bow and will solve crime, although I'm not sure where this is in her timeline) and Noh-Vaar (Some Alien Guy Who Likes 60s Music And Impressing Kate Bishop and used to be an Avenger) show up! As does Loki, asking America Chavez to kill Billy.

There is A LOT going on here. It's a bit more coherent than the last Young Avengers book I read (probably because it's not a four-way crossover), and the art is by the person who draws The Wicked + The Divine so that's guaranteed quality and doing interesting things with panel layouts. The line by line writing is fun, and I enjoy Billy and Teddy's relationship, and America, and Kate having fun, and Loki trying to live down to his own reputation. I just... Eh... The story didn't really resolve? I enjoyed the character work but didn't much care about the story. It's fun, and if you like Young Avengers it is worth checking out! But I wouldn't reread it.

[CW: Suicide imagery]



15. Toad Words and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher [Top]
This is another T. Kingfisher anthology – I really like her short fiction okay, I don't know what to tell you – only this one is primarily reworkings of fairy tales. I do want to go through all of the stories individually, and possibly bring bookgazing in to be smart and articulate about them, so I won't keep y'all too long here. It's a really good collection, and the stories are consistently quality! You're quite likely to have encountered Toad Words in the wild, so if you liked that then this collection will probably have something else in that you like! The Bluebeard retelling and the Red Riding Hood remix really got to me, as quiet and compelling stories, and Boar and Apples is an excellent Snow White retelling that I want to read again just so that I can savour it. Come and read it and tell me what your favourite story is!

16. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey [Top]
I am so genuinely, earnestly here for River of Teeth. It is Definitely Not a Caper, set in an alternate history 1890s where the US government imported hippos as a meat source. It's got everything I want in a (Definitely Not A) caper; getting a team together with all of their complementary skills, a villain who might as well be twirling his moustache the whole way through, webs of connections and betrayals, and so many schemes! And it has a bonus non-binary person who is never misgendered, and a queer romance with my favourite kind of meet-cute!

(The people who have read River of Teeth are probably now looking at me like "Susan what?" but that meet-cute was EXCELLENT and you know it.)

I was a bit worried about the sheer number of characters in this novella (there's at least six people and seven hippos), but there's enough personality going on that even I, with my terrible ability to track names, was able to keep everyone matched up. And there's a few bits where it's like "Oh no, I know why you've been introduced and exactly what's going to happen to you," but it does work with the story being told.

Basically, River of Teeth is delightful, and I love it and am immediately shoving it at everyone who has ever expressed an interest in capers OR hippos.

17. The Raven and The Reindeer by T. Kingfisher [Top]
I literally scrapped my planned review for December at the Lesbrary so that I could review The Raven and the Reindeer for it, that is how much I loved it. If you want a queer retelling of The Snow Queen, this is for you.



18. Zombie Economics by Lisa Desjardins and Rick Emerson [Top]
This is a SUPER BASIC look at household economics, examined through the medium of the zombie apocalypse. Like, financial advice explained through how the skill-set is transferable from the zombie apocalypse to real life, with slivers of zombie apocalypse fiction. The fiction was fine, generic and bits of it were confusing as to what was actually happening, but it served the purpose. And whole chapters of the advice was US specific so no use to me? But the actual general advice was pretty useful, and aimed at about my level of financial management (So, uh, not great.). Worth getting out of the library, but I wouldn't buy it.

19. Brave Chef Brianna by Sam Sykes and Selina Espiritu [Top]
Brave Chef Brianna revolves around a young woman who joins her zillion brothers (okay, like twelve) in competing for her father's cooking legacy! The only way to win is to open a successful restaurant, one sibling per city... But the only place that Brianna can afford to open shop is in Monster City, where the LITERAL MONSTERS live.

First off: the art is cute and funny, with really inventive monster designs as well, even for the background figures. It doesn't match the art style of the covers at all, which disappointed me when I first started reading, but it does work well for the story it's telling. And Brave Chef Brianna has one of the best depictions of anxiety and intrusive thoughts that I've seen in a while; they're personified as little black clouds that tell her how fat and useless she is and how she always ruins things for everyone, and as a person who has very similar anxiety tracks, that is an accurate depiction of how it feels. And the conflict between the siblings, and the relationships she builds with her staff and her customers work really well! I just feel a bit weird that the main plot conflict is that Brianna cooks with ingredients explicitly forbidden in Monster City (human flour and sugar, which suggests that there is a monster equivalent that just... Never gets mentioned?), and never tries to cook with monster ingredients until actually forced to? I can't tell if that's Brianna staying in her lane, or cultural commentary, or... I don't know. Especially because the antagonist specifically wants to avoid cultural crossover due to human oppression that she specifically fought against? (I did appreciate the city's response to discovering that she'd been breaking the law since opening day.) I keep pondering it, but I may need to ponder further!

It's fun and cute and an A+ depiction of anxiety, but if someone else wants to read it and come and help me work out my feelings, comments are open!

20. Yona of the Dawn Volume Nine by Kizuho Kusanagi [Top]
I'm going to be honest with you, I wasn't sure about this one to start with? Yona declares them all bandits without thinking through the repercussions this would have for the people around them! And while it's for a good reason... Hm. But by the end of the volume I was absolutely invested in this terrible idea, and the way that Yona is trying to make things better for people with the resources that she has. I am enjoying Yona learning and growing as a warrior as well as a person, because she'd literally never held a weapon under volume two, but I am dreaming of the day she doesn't need rescuing. I don't know if this means that I'm missing the point of the series or not. But also... She's trying! She is channelling her female mentor, she is trying to protect people, and I love her.

(Assume that I spent a lot of time whispering "Siha noooooo" during the middle of this volume.)

I am intrigued by the set-up for this next story arc, as well, because Useless Creeper Dude is back from volume two! And even though most of this is being played for laughs, I feel like him discovering that he didn't kill Yona is going to have... Repercussions... And I am here for it.

... Look, altogether it's not a terrible volume, I just can't get over their bandit gang name.

Reading Goals

Reading goal: 155/150 (27 new this post; MISSION COMPLETE!) Prose: 82/50 (11 new this post)
New-to-me female authors: 43/50 (7 new this post; Carmen Maria Machado, Akane Abe, Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sarah Gailey, Lisa Desjardins, Selina Espiritu)
#getouttamydamnhouse: 42/80 (4 gone this post)
#unofficialqueerasfuckbookclub: 50/155 (The Husband Stitch, The Cure, Hard Rock, The Price of Meat, Young Avengers, River of Teeth, The Raven and the Reindeer)

Comments

[schneefink]

What are you talking about, it is an appropriately terrible bandit gang name, so basically perfect xD

[bookgazing]

I feel like I have Toad Words from some kind of Hugo packet maybe? Is this correct? I've read the title story at least.

Btw I bought the story collection The Husband Stitch is from (ugh the cover is so stupidly neon here, what is up with all the neon this year, but still) and plan to dig into it in 2018.

[chomiji]

Thank you for talking about Yona of the Dawn. I bought the first volume because it was important to someone I know, and then Yona lies to someone to make that person jealous early in the book and I stopped cold, because I really hate that trope, really hate plots based on misunderstandings, all that kind of stuff.

But it sounds like she gets better, so I'll give it another try.

[aoftheis]

T. Kingfisher is so delightful — her fairytale retellings have a wry humour that's very modern and refreshing. I loved Toad Words, especially the novella "Boar and Apples;" her second short story collection (Jackalope Wives and Other Stories) is even better, believe it or not. I'm happy to hear that The Raven and the Reindeer is great, too — just started reading it!