Book Reviews

Entry #2 in Rebecca Yarros’s the Empyrean series similar to my review of Fourth Wing, I’ll be jumping right into my general impressions and skip the usual editorial-style intro and recap since most people are quite familiar with the series one way or another. Dividing into two parts that are roughly equal in page counts, Iron Flame is like a tale of two different reading experiences vastly different from each other. The entire novel covers about half of Violet Sorrengail’s 2nd year at the Basgiath War College, with part 1 following a similar formula to Fourth Wing’s rider academy training arc and part 2 diverging and focusing on the larger political factions and war strategizing across the continent, most similar to Fourth Wing’s late War Games arc and the subsequent events. Interestingly, Iron Flame’s overall direction with its plot, characters and hybrid romantasy genre largely addressed and improved on nearly every point of criticism I mentioned in my past review of Fourth Wing. And while I found Iron Flame’s Part 2 half to range from great to stellar, its opening Part 1 half felt like an endless slog to get through. Although the plot and world-building were substantially more ambitious…

Frances White’s debut novel Voyage of the Damned is an ambitiously plotted story that smoothly crosses over across a variety of different genres outside of its main fantasy classification. While definitively a fantasy novel due to its fantastical scale, magical powers and traditional fantasy-realm setting, the story is just as much a whodunit mystery thriller investigation tale (debatably even more than its fantasy-wrapping) as well as a lightly inspired queer romantasy (with asterisks around the romance). Comments summarizing Voyage of the Damned as an Agatha Christie novel dressed up in fantasy outfit is a decent comparison as it definitely gave me faint Murder on the Orient Express vibes, if the Orient Express was a grand and luxurious sailing vessel ala Death on the Nile. However, Voyage of the Damned’s ill-fated events also have compelling political ramifications to the growing body count and a wild last minute plot twist that can either make or break the reading experience depending on the reader’s suspension of disbelief. For me personally, it worked very well, and its ending managed to course-correct and explain nearly every potential plot hole or point of criticism I had while reading the novel. While White’s flavor of character narration…

Falling somewhere in the area between being creatively genius vs a festivity-induced fever dream, The Nightmare Before Kissmas is light-hearted and cute dramedy that hits all the right beats one would expect for a holiday romance novel. Personifying popular holidays as magically inclined individuals reminiscent of Rise of the Guardians paired with the familial expectations and burdens of royalty akin to Casy McQuiston’s Red White and Royal Blue, the Nightmare Before Kissmas is constantly a lot of fun and a feel-good escapism read. And while it’s frequently cheesy and often tap dances on the line between being endearing and cringy, the plot is solid, featuring surprisingly ambitious commentary on the materialism and purpose of holidays as well as holiday politics in this fantasy-leaning version of the world. Despite initially being a bit of a box office bomb, the 2012 animated film Rise of the Guardians and its source material The Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce have since become sleeper hits thanks to the creative and charming way they personified popular holidays as magical beings and culture associated with said holidays. The Nightmare Before Kissmas features a lot of similar concepts but utilizes them for an adult romantic dramedy…

Necromancers, cavaliers, copious amounts of magic and challenges, oh my! Tamsyn Muir’s debut novel and the start of her Locked Tomb series, on paper Gideon has everything going for it. While featuring many hallmark elements of fantasy epics such as an emperor with numerical houses/factions, pseudo magician + knight pairings, and an unknown challenge for representatives to ascend to the “Lyctor” status, Gideon the Ninth separates itself from the rest of its genre firstly by setting the series not in the traditional fantasy-realm past, but instead in an interstellar futuristic expanse. Secondly, this novel’s reputation featuring “lesbian necromancers” proceeds itself and has that instant hook for booktok and social media recognition (though important to note, while having a wandering queer eye, this is not a romantasy novel). While technically being classified as fantasy and sci-fi, Gideon’s second half functions more as a whodunnit survival thriller meshed with dark academia elements and is very compelling when Muir gets it just right. Unfortunately, despite the ambitious plotting and creative ideas found throughout the story, Gideon the Ninth is held back by a few but very notable flaws with its approach to storytelling as well as its confusingly vague and messy world-building. Additionally,…

Erik J. Brown’s sophomore YA novel following his heartwarming post-apocalyptic coming of age debut All That’s Left In the World, on the surface Lose You to Find Me appears to be an entirely different kind of book considering the very different genre and relationship dynamics of its main characters. I previously reviewed and loved All That’s Left In the World and while Lose You to Find Me wasn’t originally on my to-be-read radar, I was intrigued and interested to see if Brown’s excellent character work and relatable writing in a more straight-forward (get the pun) m/m coming of age story without the survival adventure angle would be as successful. To be honest, I went in with tempered expectations due to how negative some of the reviewers for this novel were, but I was relieved to find that yes, Erik J. Brown is a fantastic YA author who is far more well-rounded than I expected. Leaning more into the comedy aspect of what Brown himself dubs “Rom-Dramedy” while still having dramatic and occasionally romantic moments, this novel certainly has a different flavor and character narration voice from his first novel, along with different themes and focus. However, do not listen to…