The Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao

"The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot
Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. However, through an unexpected incident, she is labelled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot. 

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and stop more girls from being sacrificed."

I knew I would enjoy this book but I absolutely loved it. 

For a debut novel, it is absolutely knockout. The plot is snappy, fast - paced and fluid while still giving the world time to be fleshed out and moments of quiet. Jay Zhao beautifully interweaves the recognizable elements of popular YA, with Chinese mythology and history all while using these elements to explore the modern dilemmas of sexism, societally condoned abuse, shame tactics, body politics, Chinese tribal politics and jingoism. However, it never becomes didactic, nor do these themes feel forced into the narrative. They flow naturally within the story structure. Clearly an incredibly well read/informed author.  

The writing is stellar. There were heart-breaking moments and moments that made me feel like I should go scream victoriously on a roof top somewhere. The descriptions were beautiful, and created a vivid and unique world for me. The Chrysalises sounded so damn cool. The dialogue is so good, it never felt clunky and each person had a very unique voice. 

The characters where all so lovable to me. Very few novels out there allow their female protagonist to gain full ownership not only of her body, but of her destiny; to be merciless and vengeful, and cold-blooded; to kill people in order to achieve her goals. Zetian is brutal and fabulous. She is allowed to be as cold and calculating as her male peers, arguably more so, while never becoming unrelatable. She loves and feels so deeply, which is why she fights so hard. She is probably the first "empowering" character that I have read that I actually felt was relatable and genuinely had me coming away feeling pumped. 

Li Shimin was adorable, this huge, terrifying, hulking solider is actually a big softie. This contrasted by Gao YiZhi, who is the most traditionally feminine of them all, is the cool and calculating strategist. I adored the dynamics between the three of them. I wasn't aware that it was going to be a polyamorous relationship so I was so thrilled when I started to see the way that the book was headed. I also just really appreciated seeing a relationship between a more aggressive women and and more feminine guy, where she didn't look down on him, nor did he feel emasculated by her in anyway. It was beautiful and refreshing. 

While there where some elements that where clearly recognizable from other places such as the obvious nod to Pacific Rim or Ender's Game, I never felt that this book was derivative. It felt unique, original, scintillating and surprisingly gritty in places. I would 100% recommend and I am looking forward to the next instalment after that plot twist! 

Age Rating 17+. Mentions of domestic violence, rape, abuse, physically mutilation, torture.

The Guinevere Deception - Keirsten White

"A new fantasy series set in the world of Camelot, re-imagining the
Arthurian legend . . . where nothing is as magical and terrifying as a girl.

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution--send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name--and her true identity--is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old--including Arthur's own family--demand things continue as they have been, and the new--those drawn by the dream of Camelot--fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land."

I'm surprised that this book didn't work for me as I am a huge fan of White's And I Darken Trilogy. I also love Arthurian mythology and White's feminist spins on old tales, so what could go wrong?

Firstly, I think this book kept us in the dark for way too long. (It kind of is still keeping us in the dark as not much is actually resolved.) So long that it became uninteresting for me. All we know is that Guinevere is not the real Guinevere but a changeling witch, sent by Merlin to protect King Arthur. We spend so long not really knowing where the story is going, no plot direction, no tension what so ever. Guinevere's goal of protecting Arthur feels open-ended and not tied to any real conflict. This means that she spends a lot of time wandering around, chatting with familiar characters like Mordred and Brangien, and not doing much of anything. I actually had to stop reading half way through and go read something else I was that bored.

Even when a touch of drama appears, Guinevere is hurried off to safety. She is in no way strong or independent or bad ass and she uses so little magic she probably would have been better without it. If anything she was the complete opposite of empowering, being painfully useless the entire time. If the growing romance/s was supposed to be the main point of tension, I didn't really get a sense of that. Arthur was so bland and forgettable (though unfortunately all the characters were). This story and all of the characters where lacking the gritty realism and complex morality of White's other books. 

I also did not feel like this story was taking place in the 5th-6th centuries. There was very little to capture the feeling of the time and place, which is the exact opposite of what I would say about the author's And I Darken trilogy. I guess I also just don't believe that feminism is rewriting history to pretend sexism didn't exist, which it felt like this did. The way women are treated felt untrue to the times.

Overall a very disappointing book by a much loved writer. 

Age Rating 13+. I really can't think of anything untoward in this book. 

House of Earth and Blood - Sarah J Maas

"Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying
all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it."

Yes, I have returned to my guilty pleasure of Maas's work. 

When I heard that Maas's next work would be her first foray into adult fiction I was pretty surprised as I have always felt that, despite the fantasy genre which is for some reason always felt to be YA by publishers, her other series have been pretty damn adult with the heavy focus of violence, torture and sexual content. 

Now, I am no prude, but the swearing in this book was totally unnecessary and just came across as childish. If anything, it made Crescent city feel like a young Throne of Glass trying to impress all of her older friends with her edginess. Crescent City fancies itself quite the edgelord with its filthy mouth, drugs and sex but none of it is handled well. Drugs are treated as something casually edgy that the characters do without any sorts of repercussions. Violence is casual as well, and doesn't really serve any purpose in the story. Characters are killed off before we can really care about them properly. And the sexual content is... painfully cringey. (Though somehow there was less sex then in her YA stuff. Riddle me that.)

Then there's MC Bryce. I, personally, really don't see what people would find empowering in Bryce's character. She's gorgeous. She's sexy. Everyone, everyone,wants to fuck her. She's not like other girls. Yay for a women finding her strength outside of male validation, I guess?? Lol. She feels pity for whores because she only sleeps around to self-medicate for her emotional issues. (This is never addressed by the way.) She recklessly endangers herself by doing drugs but somehow she's deep and intelligent. Like, Maas was clearly trying to use Bryce's character to show how women shouldn't be underestimated because she likes to look pretty, something I completely agree with. However then Bryce has random hookups every five seconds (this is not safe from a STD or rape point of view), romanticises drug use (a whole lot of nope), and uses her body to monetarily gain? Why do women have to be highly sexual to be empowered? Also Bryce complains about men treating her like a whore when she herself admits to dressing like one and that most half - human women make a living through prostitution? I am feeling soo empowered right now. 

Strangely I preferred Hunt's character in this novel. Shock horror he has wings, would he really be a Maas ML if he didn't have wings. He was actually somewhat relatable, enjoyable to read about and strangely funny at times. However he too is cursed with the better then everyone, only one of his kind, probably a god in disguise trope that Mass has going on with literally all of her characters. Thus he comes of as one dimensional and lacking a certain grit I was hoping for. I understand that Maas was trying to be be feminist and veer away from the "toxic masculinity" but am I truly supposed to believe that a 200 year old General who is now a an assassin is actually just a sweet softie starved of snuggles who's PTSD comes down to crying in the shower?

One of the major points of this book is that there is a war going on in the background of the entire novel, between humans and the Vanir. Yes, the Vanir. If that sounded familiar, it’s because it refers to a race of elder nature gods in Norse mythology. However, SJM liked the sound of that word but didn’t like its meaning, so in this world (also called Midgard) the word ‘Vanir’ refers to all different kinds of mythological beings, including angels, fae, werewolves, demons, mermaids etc. I love stealing words from ancient cultures and disregarding its original meaning. 

Anyway, this war is going on because humans are completely oppressed by the Vanir, who see themselves as superior to humans in every way. (Which technically, physically, magically and lifespan wise they are.) However, most of the characters are actually sympathetic nice Vanir so the human plight is pretty much pushed to the background except when the half-human Bryce is being sneered at and she gets irritated by it. There are no full human characters, the most we see of this "oppression" is Bryce being given a snooty look in a restaurant. There are literally people dying, Bryce. This war and human oppression get less screen-time than Bryce’s perfect ass. How can I take this war seriously and believe the Vanir are meant to be the bad guys when we spend so much of the book talking about how sexy they are??

Now, on to a few of my small pet peeves. Why is so many of these people called tan? It feels like a get out of jail free card of having more POC in her work without ever actually saying so. Also, and I really don't know if this will make sense, but all of her LGBT representation still somehow feels so heterosexual. Last but not least..."alphaholes." Please in the name of all that is unholy, no.

I must admit, the reason that I enjoy coming back to Mass's work is very similar to Holly Black. Both of their plots and characters are okay, however it is the fantasy elements, fun writing and world building that really gets me. The whole aesthetic of the book, the visual images that Maas conjures up for you are just so much fun. Baby puppy werewolves lying in the grass, a nightclub located in a forgotten temple, a Fallen Angel wearing a baseball cap. All of Maas's work, no matter how problematic they are, are just fun to read. Large, grand, funny, over - emotional self insert fan fiction where everyone has superpowers, is descended from someone really important and is really really pretty. I am not saying it is perfect, but this book didn't feel slow to me at all. I was engaged and interested the entire time, and Maas does actually touch on a few good themes. I enjoyed the emphasis on friendship and how powerful that can be. 

Age Rating 18+. I am 19 and I felt uncomfortable, dear god it felt like reading a Mills and Boons with swearing. 

I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

"Isaac Asimov's I, Robot launches readers on an adventure into a not-
so-distant future where man and machine , struggle to redefine life, love, and consciousness—and where the stakes are nothing less than survival. Filled with unforgettable characters, mind-bending speculation, and nonstop action, I, Robot is a powerful reading experience from one of the master storytellers of our time."

An undeniable classic in the Sci-fi genre, written by an incredibly famous and influential author. Written during the 50's the story does show it's age occasionally. It is quite amusing for a modern reader to read about people in spaceships all acting like they are in the 50's with constant smoking and outdated dialogue. However, this does not detract from the book. It merely serves to highlight how ahead of his time Asimov was. 

This is actually a collection of robot-centred short stories that eventually are shown to be connected in a large world building arc. I personally enjoyed this structure as it gave Asimov the scope to explore many different possibilities and themes. Asimov's delightful wit pokes through in unexpected places, with some really laugh out loud moments interspersed between all of the philosophy. Robots spout Gilbert and Sullivan, one believes it is a Prophet and refuse to believe it was made by inferior humans, one takes literally the directive to "Get lost!" And then there the ones who use logic to avoid following the first rule about not harming, or allowing harm to come to any human. 

The narrative flows so effortlessly and every story adds new depth to the question of humanity. I do think it is as much about humans as about robots. What makes us human is a common question in Asimov's work....Moreover, I have a feeling that he puts forward a rather bold question: is humanity an answer to everything? Should it be?

There is much room for debate and intellectual musings within this book. How much do we control ourselves outside of biology, society and psychology? Are we really superior because we are organic? Is being ruled by something you mentally cannot comprehend a good idea or a bad one? Is emotion necessary to govern? 

However I must say, while still being incredibly interesting, quite a bit of the conundrums that Asimov brought up have been further explored in popular media. I am not saying that the book is no longer worth a read, merely that some of the material wont feel and inventive or groundbreaking to modern audiences then I am sure it did to the original readers. 

Age rating 13+. Nothing untoward and could be an interesting conversation starter. 

The Goddess Chronicles - Natsuo Kirino

"In a place like no other, on a mystical island in the shape of tear
drop, two sisters are born into a family of oracles. Kamikuu is admired far and wide for her otherworldly beauty; small and headstrong Namima learns to live in her sister’s shadow. On her sixth birthday, Kamikuu is chosen to become the next Oracle, serving the realm of light, while Namima is forced to serve the realm of darkness—destined to spend eternity guiding the spirits of the deceased to the underworld.

As the sisters serve opposite fates, Namima embarks on a journey that takes her from the experience of first love to the aftermath of scalding betrayal. Caught in an elaborate web of treachery, she travels between the land of the living and the Realm of the Dead, seeking vengeance and closure.

At the heart of this exquisitely dark tale, Kirino masterfully reimagines the ancient Japanese creation myth of Izanami and Izanaki. A provocative, fantastical saga, The Goddess Chronicle tells a sumptuous story of sex, murder, gods and goddesses, and bittersweet revenge."

It's always difficult to review a translated work, because when you come across either brilliance or lack of lustre, it's difficult to assess whether that boon or bane is attributable to the author or the translator.

Such is the case with The Goddess Chronicle, by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Rebecca Copeland.

The story is a retelling of the original Japanese creation story. I suspect the original work by Kirino is a charged, tight story. Copeland's translation, however, lacks passion, and certainly this is a story about passion, in fact eons of passion as we trace the history of the Yin/Yang gods of Izanami and Izanaki reflected through the mortal lives of Namima and her unscrupulous lover.

There is much here to be said of sibling rivalry and betrayal of sacred trusts, of epic journeys both temporal and spiritual. There is a genesis story, a parallel to the Greek Eurydice and Orpheus myth. There is the struggle of the desperately poor serving religious tenets that serve only to embed their poverty and keep certain people in there place. Of female suffering and betrayal. 

It's all there. Yet not a single phrase of elegance or startling insight to lift the reader from a grey narrative to the chiaroscuro the story demands. Lack lustre characterisation leaves me emotionally detached from the story. There is no final message, no meaning to the story, no insight into the collective female experience. While all these themes are set up, not one comes to any meaningful fruition. This causes the book to feel hollow and deeply, ironically, unemotional. A real disappointment that I am not sure who to attribute blame to. 

Age Rating 15+. Sexual detail, death and certain cultural abuses. 

Honeycomb - Joanne M Harris

"A lushly illustrated set of dark, captivating fairy tales

The beauty of stories; you never know where they will take you. Full of dreams and nightmares, Honeycomb is an entrancing mosaic novel of original fairy tales from bestselling author Joanne M. Harris and legendary artist Charles Vess in a collaboration that’s been years in the making. The toy-maker who wants to create the perfect wife; the princess whose heart is won by words, not actions; the tiny dog whose confidence far outweighs his size; and the sinister Lacewing King who rules over the Silken Folk. These are just a few of the weird and wonderful creatures who populate Joanne Harris’s first collection of fairy tales."

This is a gorgeous collection of super short (2-5 page) stories that read like a cross between fairy tales and fables, each interconnected to a larger picture. The Lacewing Prince is a selfish and cruel ruler of the Silken folk, touching many lives with his behaviour, but as time goes on he starts to face the consequences and mature.

They’re really easy to read and particularly good if you only have a couple of minutes to spend reading at a time, though I will admit that I read the whole book in a couple of settings.

The stories carry a mixture of moral messages and explore different themes. She’s unapologetic in her criticism of certain characters and themes, without ever directly even criticising them leaving it up to your interpretation. 

Honeycomb is a book that you need to take time with, but will pay back richly if you do. It mixes myth and magic, nature and fear to form an intelligent and multi-layered prose poem that both celebrates traditional dark Fairy stories and brings the style to a modern-day audience. It is one to dip into, to read and reread, and I rather suspect would be excellent read out aloud. I really can't tell you how much I loved this book, there where moments I just had to look up from my book and relish the images conjured up. This is my second of Harris's books and I must say I am really blown away by her prose. It is poetic and lyrical yet never becomes overblown or shies away from the less beautiful aspects of the stories theme. If anything, the beautiful prose serves to highlight the pain or fear or horror of what is occurring. 

As someone brought up on Fairy-tales, this had a very nostalgic air to me and accurately revived the aesthetic/feeling of the originals, though still being so unique and original. 

Age Rating 15+. These are adult fairy-tales, and while some stories are okay for children, certainly not all. There are some very dark themes that are explore such as abuse, sexism and death. 

Cat Out of Hell - Lynne Truss

"For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec
Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him...

And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths. But will the cat help Alec, or is he one of the dark forces?"

This book is certainly not for those looking for a cohesive narrative or stellar plot building. It was silly and camp and an all round fun read. It seems to be classed as horror, but I think the author wrote it tongue-in-cheek. If you’re a horror fan looking for a spine-tingler you won’t find it here. 

It certainly has its issues as a book.  You can follow what’s happening but the narrative skips and jumps for no reason. When Truss builds up to an interesting scene like a heist or a murder mystery reveal, she skips it and jumps ahead to the aftermath before going back to the safety of Alec or Wiggy’s overly chatty, rather scatterbrained narration. The ending is also a let down. Events stumble clumsily to the final act and then, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly be this predictable, when Truss MUST do something a little different to make things at least a bit interesting, she opts instead for exactly the least original choice. 

However despite my grumblings, I actually did enjoy this book. I could feel that Truss was having fun writing this book and just let herself spurt all the weirdest silliest dialogue onto the page. I couldn't help but be infected by the wonderful craziness of the whole thing, and the dry, pop culture studded humour was right up my alley. 

Age Rating 17+. Some pretty graphic murder scenes, awful torture and gore.