Fantasy

An ambitiously creative and well-rounded sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek is a wonderful low fantasy story featuring a great mix of storylines and elements. While many retellings either struggle with adhering to their source material or end up predictable given their well-known general plots, A Treachery of Swans makes the concept look easy. Gracefully following Swan Lake’s premise faithfully, this book adds a considerable amount of new context, details, and unexpectedly solid new storylines to the iconic tale, all within a PG-rated scope for YA readership. I didn’t have much of an expectation going into this one, but I was pleasantly surprised and consistently thrilled reading this book! As I walk by them, their faces blur together, artificial as theatre masks, lifeless eyes and painted lips and too-sharp teeth glinting as they seethe their congratulations. They think I will be an easy meal, I realize, the Swan Princess of Auvigny, pearlescent and pure-hearted and ripe for their devouring. But they’re wrong… I’m the darkness of cold gutters and merciless nights, the bruised shadows beneath a thief’s desperate eyes. I’m nothing but a lie, a twisted reflection, a black swan. As evident from the…

Magical everyday objects scattered across the world, a secret society that meets in the basement of a bookstore, and dangerous individuals more than willing to kill for them, the Society of Unknowable Objects is an urban fantasy story full of great elements and ideas. Similar to Gareth Brown’s debut novel the Book of Doors, this novel has a premise that feels like a throwback to classic children’s fantasy books appropriately aged up for adult readers looking for a fun and straightforward magic adventure. Brown’s second book, from the get-go the Society of Unknowable Objects has a familiar feel that recaptures the fun of many popular YA fantasy books of the early 2000s. Revolving around a group of four adults who collectively make up the Society of Unknowable Objects, these individuals possess knowledge of special everyday items that grant their holder a variety of magical powers. But with strong magical powers comes the unwanted attention of those looking to use them for their own benefit, hence why the Society was formed to keep these objects out of less desirable hands. An interesting mix of cross-country hidden treasure hunting, mysterious intrigue, and fantasy action, the novel has strong mass appeal thanks to…

Part urban paranormal fantasy, part futuristic dystopia, Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season is a wildly ambitious novel and a unique series starter that’s full of conflicting elements that on paper should not work. Additionally, it throws the reader into the thick of it with a list of undefined terminology, chaotic world-building, and a whiplash shift in setting three chapters in. Yet despite a rough beginning, those that give the novel a chance will be rewarded with a thrilling and complex dark fantasy story that gets progressively better and better over the course of its nearly 500-page run. Despite being over a decade late to The Bone Season hype train, I was fully invested in its wild ride through Shannon’s futuristically bleak version of London and Oxford. Note, an important disclaimer is that this review is based on a first edition copy of The Bone Season as originally written and published in 2013. Fully aware of the novel’s rougher patches, Samantha Shannon and Bloomsbury released revised editions of the first four books in the series in 2023 for The Bone Season’s 10yr anniversary which bring them more in line with her current matured and more lyrical writing style and refining the…

The following review is based on a complimentary ARC provided by Forever, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. A powerful female knight and partner mage, swordplay crossed with magic, and a slow burn childhood friends to lovers arc, V. L. Bovalino’s The Second Death of Locke is a fantasy/romantasy novel that makes the most of all of its appealing narrative elements and ideas. While the fantasy romance/romantasy genre has increasing moved towards romance and smut dressed in fantasy clothing (or lack of, ba dum tss), this novel instead is a true balance of its genres, a very rare epic fantasy romance novel that has the plot and world-building that earns its fantasy classification. Featuring a healthy blend of action, character drama, romance, and magical intrigue, The Second Death of Locke is a great all-arounder that despite serving as the start to Bovalino’s the Hand and the Heart series, has an adequately satisfying ending that can be read on its own. While the romantasy genre originally was a combination of romance storylines set within a fantasy world, the genre has increasingly become associated with steamy romance, smut, and incorporating popular expected tropes. That said, many viral romantasy novels often feel romance…

A reserved young woman whose future and purpose in life is already written and decided meets an inquisitive young man named whose life lacks direction and purpose. One lives in a world of mystical wonder while the other seeks to understand theirs through science and knowledge. Brought together by fate through a door masquerading as an entrance to a ramen shop, Hana and Kei set off into an ethereal world where choices, regrets, memories, and desires hold far greater purpose and influence. Dreamy, whimsical, and full of gorgeously crafted literary metaphors, Samantha Sotto Yambao’s Water Moon is a magical crossover fantasy and speculative fiction novel that is a unique and dreamy experience. Trained all her life to take over her father’s magical pawnshop, Hana Ishikawa’s world is one far different from the one we know of. Puddles are used as portals to other locations, visitors ride the wind on the melodies of songs, markets are perched high in the sky, and the Ishikawa pawnshop’s customers exchange not money, but past life choices. Each customer that finds themselves transported into the pawnshop finds themselves unconsciously drawn to the shop and is relieved of the burden, regret, and feelings associated with a…