One Dark Throne (#2) - Kendare Blake

"The battle for the Crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail?

With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent."

After the bloody events of the Quickening last book, one would be forgiven for expecting, nay, anticipating murder, mayhem, and violent mind games this round. One would expect the queens to focus tunnel vision-like on the prospect of winning and continued existence.

...Right?

Katharine, my reborn poisoner, my best hope for some slaughter, has reverted back to a blushing milkmaid in the presence of a new hot suitor. You'd think she'd show some suspicion or caution towards handsome, unusually nice strangers after what happened with Pietyr, but either she's the most confident idiot in the world or the most hormonal. Take your pick.

On that note, there's just so much goddamn romance. The first 30% of One Dark Throne is occupied with the queens' various romantic storylines, with Katharine occasionally sending out poisoned clothes as a transparent attempt to create tension. I don't mind romance. Honestly, I don't, but when the blurb promises high stakes and war, I expect blood to flow all the way up to my knees.

Arinsoe and Mirabelle. I had little to no expectations for these two, so I wasn't that disappointed when they sat back like the vanilla bread rolls they are. I found Arsinoe's suddenly brilliant low magic awfully convenient compared to the absolutely disastrous effects it had last time. This series tries so hard to sell me that it's morally grey! These characters are dark! When actually they are as pure as fresh stream water. Katharine's newfound darkness, as it turns out, is the result of weird malevolent magic, which was such a let down as I though her become more "evil" was a perfectly natural reaction to her awful upbringing and the events of the Quickening.

Jules frustrated the hell out of me. This revelation came out of nowhere. Legion cursed? What the eff is this new term? It was never once mentioned in Book 1 and all of a sudden in Book 2, every time the term was mentioned, every character that mentioned it knew exactly what it was. Now all of a sudden, Jules' great power is revealed to be because she also has the war gift on top of her naturalist gift? And we never saw sparks of it before because it had been "bound"?

It just seemed like the author pulled it out of nowhere because she didn't want to use any of the foreshadowed terms previously thrown in Book 1 (e.g. Blue Queen) just to throw us all off and make the reveal a "surprise". Unfortunately, I wasn't "shook", as they say nowadays. More like mildly annoyed.

Joseph is honestly so boring. I wasn't sad when he died. I was more shocked that Jules took him back after very obviously cheating on her. 

The writing and world-building are still frustratingly sparse. On the former, the narrative gives off a traditional "fairy tale" vibe where we have action and dialogue, but we never have a solid handle on its characters. One Dark Throne largely foregoes stream-of-consciousness narrative (inner thoughts/monologue), so it's hard for me, personally, to relate to these characters. It lacks intimacy. They're plot pieces, not people.

As for world-building, two full-length books have gone by and I still don't have a good idea what Fennbirn looks like nor the three clans' culture and surroundings. (Truthfully, I don't have a clue what the sisters look like either) There are poisoners and naturalists and elementals... and then what? There's nothing to expand on. All I get from Wolf Spring (naturalist Arinsoe's home) is they're big on fried clams. But it's been two books! I should know more than fried clams.

Towards the end, we are led to believe that we'll receive world expansion in the form of the mainland, though I stand by my point. It's been two books. Nearly 800 pages. We should know more. I should feel more.

Age Rating 13+. Nothing untoward really. A few un-grotesque deaths and implied sex that could easily be read as snuggling by a younger audience. 

The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson

A young man is fighting for his life. Into his room walks a bewitching woman who believes she can save him. Their journey will have you believing in the impossible. The nameless and beautiful narrator of The Gargoyle is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over – he is now a monster. But in fact it is only just beginning. One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life – and, finally, to love.


The book opens with detailed description of the accident that disfigures the unnamed narrator, with a beautiful, horrific break down of the accident itself, and the subsequent medical procedures he must undergo to recover. A former porn star and now disfigured beyond recognition, the narrator takes us on a journey into his own past, into his future and recovery, and into medieval Germany.

For at least half of the book, I was completely hooked. Some parts of the story are slow, and yet the prose is dynamic and exciting enough to carry you through. It's extremely gritty, and the protagonist is exactly the kind I like: cynical, sarcastic, and with a somewhat nihilistic view of the world. 

While recovering in the hospital, the narrator becomes addicted to morphine and even more addicted to misery, plotting his own suicide in graphic detail. That is - until Marianne Engel appears in his room. Marianne is undoubtedly strange, and he suspects that she is either suffering from manic depression or schizophrenia. Because the things she tells him cannot possibly be true.

Among her tales of love stories, she also reveals that they have a "past". Once upon a time in fourteenth-century Germany, they were lovers. Ludicrous as this obviously is, the protagonist is drawn into her tales, finding new reason to live from her companionship, whilst also being concerned for her mental health.

Both the present day recovery and the historical elements are fascinating. The writing is lush and vivid, weaving a modern day tale of tragedy and romance with history and the suggestion of fantasy. Absolutely stunning writing. 

However, the problem was--okay, one of the problems was--that I found the many love stories to be more interesting than Marianne's own story. The main issue I had was that there was no real conflict to propel the plot along and I didn't think that the characters were strong enough to carry the story themselves. Yes, there were some details that intrigued me (like the Asian woman whispering to a young Narrator about the origin of his scar, which was completely forgotten), and Marianne's assertion that they were lovers did pique my interest--was she for real or just a deeply confused schizophrenic? But the majority of the plot was about the Narrator's recovery in the burn unit, his rehabilitation and physical therapy, which, granted, was quite thoroughly researched but a little boring after a while. And Marrianne's slow slip into madness. However, there were parts where the author slipped into long, monotonous, detailed description that could have easily been cut. A half page listing all of the foods at the Christmas feast? Seriously?

My second major issue was the characters. I just felt that they were one-dimensional and uninteresting beyond the fact that one is burned and the other thinks they're lovers from 700 years ago. They reminded me of the titular gargoyle: meticulously crafted but ultimately stony and impenetrable and without much substance below the surface. I didn't think that they had any chemistry together, either. In fact, I was more charmed by the crush Gregor had on Mizumoto than I was by the primary romance.
Age Rating 16+. The main character is an ex-porn star and is not afraid to talk about it. Child abuse, substance abuse, talk about sex and violence. 

Shadow of the Fox #1 - Julie Kagawa

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

The main events happen  in the first few chapters and it is almost 300 pages before the book gets back to the main plot of finding the scroll. In between, the two characters travel to the temple, having what feel like various mini adventures along the way. It feels episodic, like anime episodes. The characters from Japanese mythology are  fascinating and my main reason for reading, but the story meanders, name-dropping creature after creature - such as oni or gaki - in order to prolong the weak plot.

Though the romance is pretty tame in this book, it was cliché. I feel like I've read versions of the two of them hundreds of times: aloof warrior dude and a beautiful naïve girl who requires protecting-- what could possibly happen? But to be honest I am not to mad, it was sweet and a fun trope.  

The ending does pick up and an explosion of action awaits (with some surprises added too), but I still felt like I read maybe 100 pages of plot progression and 300 pages of filler. 
 
The characters were what truly sold me though. I loved each of them. Tatsumi was my least favourite but I loved Yumeko and Okame. He is a brilliant comic relief character that had me snorting suddenly. 

Okay real talk, there are quite a few problems with this book. The characters are walking tropes, the ending is obviously there for a sequel, the plot is episodic, anime style glowing possessed swords and white hair, the romance is nothing new and the world building is a lot of telling rather than showing. The inclusion of Japanese words could also slip up people who are less familiar with the language. However, despite all that though I must admit I enjoyed it. It was a guilty pleasure that I will definitely read the sequel of. 

Age Rating 14+. Nothing untoward. 

Rags and Bones - Assorted including Neil Gaimen, Carrie Ryan, Kelley Armstrong ect

The best writers of our generation retell classic tales. From Sir Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" to E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops", literature is filled with sexy, deadly, and downright twisted tales. In this collection, today's most acclaimed award-winning and bestselling authors reimagine their favorite classic stories and use their own unique styles to rebuild these timeless stories, the ones that have inspired, awed, and enraged them, the ones that have become ingrained in modern culture, and the ones that have been too long overlooked. They take these twelve stories and boil them down to their bones, and reassemble them for a new generation of readers. Written from a twenty-first century perspective and set within the realms of science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, and realistic fiction, these short stories are as moving and thought provoking as their originators. They pay homage to groundbreaking literary achievements of the past while celebrating each author's unique perception and innovative style.

Okay, so I didn't read all the stories in this book as some of them frankly didn't catch my interest so I will do short reviews on the ones I did. 

That the Machine May Progress Eternally  by Carrie Ryan, inspired by E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops - Absolutely brilliant. I haven't read the original but this short story was actually terrifying and it didn't take on a preachy tone. It was an intriguing science fiction/dystopian short story that I really enjoyed. Left me reeling. 

Losing Her Divinity by Garth Nix, inspired by The Man Who Would Be King - I found this to be a bizarre little short story, and one that I enjoyed mostly because of the more unique style of the narration. Told in first person, it reads like a person having a conversation with two others (which is exactly what's going on). It was confusing at first, but once I got into the swing of it, I found it to be entertaining and amusing.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, inspired by Sleeping Beauty - A retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Gaiman manages to make Sleeping Beauty very dark (which he is very good at) and put a whole new twist to it. Gaiman twists two well-loved tales, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty together artfully. None of the characters are ever given names, the Reader thinks they know how the story will go, and then WHAM! Gaiman gives it a nice twist. The narration is third person which works brilliantly. 

Millcara by Holly Black, inspired by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla - A retelling of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. The agenda feel continues, only this time our protagonist isn't bisexual; she's a infintile lesbian vampire. Who just looooves to talk about her girlfriend's succulent lips, body heat, skin, and everything else. Ugh; I don't want the details, thank you very much. Boring  and mildly pointless as it brings no new take to the story. Narration is first person, past tense, though it jumped to present tense sometimes, as well as feeling almost like a stream-of-consciousness narration.

Awakened by Melissa Marr, inspired by Kate Chopin's The Awakening - Agian I have never read the original. I personally love selkie mythology and stories and this one was no exception. The young selkie is forced to live with an abusive, twisted man because he posesses her pelt and in extention her. In rebellion she sleeps with another man who happens to be his best friend. While her actions arent illustrious I think a common miscenception is that selkies are like humans. Personally they arent, it would like being mad an elemental or animal cheated on you when you have trapped them. My favourite of the group I read. 

The Soul Collector by Kami Garcia, inspired by the Brothers Grimm's Rumpelstiltskin -  I didn't realize it was a Rumpelstilskin retelling until the very end, it is so dissimilar. Which was a good and bad thing. I enjoy retellings that are different from the original, but I also like to see some familiar aspects. The similar aspects in this story required some interpretation. Really enjoyed the gritty, twisteness of this version. Another favourite.  Because The Soul Collector deals with street crime, there's drug, sexual, and profanity content (5 s-words), but nothing horribly explicit. 

Overall an interesting read. The mixture of source material ranges from fairy tales to Renaissance literature to short stories from the 19th and 20th centuries. While I'm not necessarily opposed to this Laissez-faire approach, it's a bit odd in an anthology aimed at teens. How many of us have read E.M. Forster's story "The Machine Stops" or Henry James' "The Jolly Corner"?  I had hoped and expected more fairy tales and was disappointed with the lack of them. 

Age Rating 15+. A few allusions here and there and the Soul Collector is quite raw but other than that nothing untoward. 

Oueer City: Gay London from the Romans to Present day - Peter Ackroyd

Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music and the horror of AIDS.

Today, we live in an era of openness and tolerance and Queer London has become part of the new norm. Ackroyd tells us the hidden story of how it got there, celebrating its diversity, thrills and energy on the one hand; but reminding us of its very real terrors, dangers and risks on the other.

I am filling torn about this book. Queer city is so crammed with facts that it becomes almost dizzying for it. In effect the whole thing feels like a big brain dump. Ackroyd rushes through a vertiginous list of facts often without really explaining things properly, or simply adding, by way of conclusion to a story, an opaque comment that seems meant as an explanation but leaves the reader puzzled and non the wiser. There wasn't really a coherent flow to it - it felt a bit choppy, like one paragraph he'd be talking about something, the next it'd be something else, which didn't seem to connect, so there wasn't really an overarching structure for each chapter let alone the book.

The book is certainly informative and enjoyable to read, and I have learnt lots of things from it, but often I was left with unanswered questions about the episodes described, or about their context. The book somehow manages to be both punctilious and vague at the time, and would, I think, be quite confusing to a reader approaching the subject for the first time. The focus was primarily on cis gay men, which I can understand because they're likely higher profile than any other part of the LGBT community, and therefore easier to find information about but found it slightly disappointing. He really does just skim over most of the 20th and 21st centuries and that's when most of the change happened so it'd have been nice to actually get something more about that. I also found the skimming over of the sexual assault described a little coarse. 

Perhaps this is due to the necessary breadth of the book, sweeping two thousand years of obscured and fragmentary history, but I can't help feeling Ackroyd could have given his subject a little more care and affection.

Age Rating 16+. Adult content. 

City of Circles - Jess Richards

Danu is a tightrope walker who is mourning her parents, after a disease has ravaged the circus where she grew up. Her mother has entrusted her with a locket that hides a secret.

Over the years, Danu pushes away her grief and develops elaborate and successful high-wire acts with Morrie, a charismatic hunchback who wants to marry her. When the circus returns to Danu's birthplace, Matryoshka, Danu is enchanted by the temples, spice mists, and pleasure seekers within the intoxicating outer circle district.
Here, she finally gains the courage to open her mother's locket, and discovers the name of a stranger who lives behind the locked gate of the Inner Circle. Fated to remain in Matryoshka, Danu attempts to resolve this mystery . . .

Will she and Morrie ever be reunited, or will something far more unexpected be waiting for her in the mysterious heart of the city? 

This a beautifully written book with a promising plot but the execution is lacking. 

The text is thick with motifs and symbolism to reinforce the search, the loneliness and the mystical otherness. Duna's poetry, interactions with sage-like strangers, introspection, dreams, visions, incantations, prayers and conversations with animals saturate the text and demand attention. Scenes with horses, spiders and magpies were always welcome, for me. Furthermore, all those that breathed life into the inanimate -- I relished them all. 

However I found everyone in this story so cold, and the protagonist Danu is the worst offender, so entirely unlikeable and frustrating. Her pain at the loss of her parents feels like a overreaction and the man that tried to assult her, well she got away without any injuries. I am in no way saying that either of those incindents arent terrible and heartbreaking but Danu felt unrealisticly morbid and depressed. 

Most other characters aren’t as egregious as Danu, but there’s no warmth or depth in any of them. Morrie bordered on the obsessive occasionally.None of them felt like real people at all - at least, not people I could care about and if I can’t care about them, why would I be interested in their story? 

I kept going in hopes that it the tale would finally lift off when they reached Matryoshka, the eponymous City of Circles, but the characters just plodded on in the same, flat, dreary, two dimensional way they did from the start. It’s all so desperately slow - far too much detail when it’s not needed, far too little when it is. It feels unfinished somehow; like a lot of notes - excellent ideas, that could have been made into something special - were simply corralled into a passable narrative with no energy or passion behind it. The allusions and treatment to sex was a little odd as well, it had a veil of obsession and vulgarity over it that was anything but erotic. 

Regarding the setting of this story, again, who knows? Is this past time, present time, near future, post-apocalyptic? Or is it not Earth, but a different world, or dimension? Not told or even implyied. There are mentions of science, surgical masks, viruses are known, but horses are still used as means of transportation. There are letters as a means of communication, with no telephones, no internet but plastic is mentioned. Clothing seemed like a mix of many things. I don't think electricity is ever mentioned.Danuisatightropewalkerwhoismourningherparents,afteradiseasehasravagedthecircuswhereshegrewup.Hermotherhasentrustedherwithalocketthathidesasecret.

Overtheyears,Danupushesawayhergriefanddevelopselaborateandsuccessfulhigh-wireactswithMorrie,acharismatichunchbackwhowantstomarryher.WhenthecircusreturnstoDanu'sbirthplace,Matryoshka,Danuisenchantedbythetemples,spicemists,andpleasureseekerswithintheintoxicatingoutercircledistrict.

Here,shefinallygainsthecouragetoopenhermother'slocket,anddiscoversthenameofastrangerwholivesbehindthelockedgateoftheInnerCircle.FatedtoremaininMatryoshka,Danuattemptstoresolvethismystery...

WillsheandMorrieeverbereunited,orwillsomethingfarmoreunexpectedbewaitingforherinthemysteriousheartofthecity? 

My absolutely favourite parts where from the house's percpective when Danu reaches Matryoshka. I thought the idea of a narrative from an inanimate object was so unique and beautiful. 

The ending and "great revel" felt flat and rushed without the proper build up of any sense of suspense, drama and didn't seem to fit with the tone of the rest of the book. Over all a book that I was hoping to be full of magic and drama, ended up flat, slow and a little disappointing. 

Age Rating 16+. Sex, death and one attempted rape and talk of rape. 

Eve of Man - Giovanna and Tom Fletcher

"AGAINST ALL ODDS, SHE SURVIVED.
THE FIRST GIRL BORN IN FIFTY YEARS.
THEY CALLED HER EVE . . .

All her life Eve has been kept away from the opposite sex. Kept from the truth of her past.

But at sixteen it's time for Eve to face her destiny. Three potential males have been selected for her. The future of humanity is in her hands. She's always accepted her fate.

Until she meets Bram.

Eve wants control over her life. She wants freedom.

But how do you choose between love and the future of the human race?"

I tried to like this, I really did. On paper it should be right up my street. Dystopian YA, female lead, ideas of gender suppression - but I just found it incredibly simplistic and uninspiring. It all just feels a little bit ‘been there, done that’ with a rather unsophisticated take on The Handmaid’s Tale, and this idea that women have been oppressed and controlled, which seems to be a recurrent theme in dystopian fiction at the moment. The writing style is very overly descriptive in terms of feelings, which I don’t think really works here, as nothing is left for the reader to interpret and develop their own opinions. It’s all telling, with no subtleties, which I think would have helped elevate the text.

The world building is also rather limited. Other than an overview at the beginning, which gives an outline into the current state of the planet and humanities apparent lack of respect for the environment due to no future generations to pass it to, there’s little explanation as to why the world is how it is. Why are no female being born? What exactly happened?  Would same sex relationships come to be excepted? Would women become revered or hunted? Would large age gaps in couples be okay? Would matriarchal cults start up? Would a world full of mainly men really result in global catastrophes?I find this slightly condescending to believe. Perhaps this will be expanded on in future literature, but I really think more time should have been spent trying to flesh out the world that I was suppose to care about. The glimpses we see of life outside the dome were some of my favourite segments, and I found the hints of environmental destruction and how the ‘Freevers’ live far more interesting than any character in the dome.

Eve and Bram, as the two narrators, have very distinct voices and it was easy to differentiate when each of them is in control of the narrative which helped with the flow of the story. However, they do unfortunately suffer from what comes across as instalove, and I found quite a lot of their scenes together quite cringy - especially the gushy declarations of love. We’re given a background to suggest that Eve and Bram have ‘grown up’ together and know each other well, but they’ve never so much as touched. It’s a very ‘clean’ romance, which is rather childish and simple but to me it also feels more like infatuation, and the love of the unknown rather than romantic love - which makes the second half of the book and the motives behind it even harder to understand.

A major issue that I found in the book is this very clear divide in the story into two distinctive parts. The first half is very Eve focused, and centres around her life in the dome and her relationships with Bram and the ‘Mothers’ - the ageing women who care for her. The second half is very much more of a revolutionary fast paced action story. I found it quite jarring, although I did enjoy the second half more. However, again I found Bram’s story a little too ‘easy’ for him. Everything falls into place with very little struggle and strife, and his character goes from beaten down son of high powered genius to revolutionary leader without any real believable development of character. In comparison, Eve comes across increasingly more like a damsel in distress as the story progresses, with little ability to really fight for herself without the help of others.

This could have been a good story about gender dynamics and the distribution of power in a world devoid of females and the continuing struggle to preserve the female race. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t enjoy it was much as I wanted as I felt it wasted its premise. 

Will try the next book in the series to see if they explore any of the concepts more deeply.