hardcover

A beloved franchise set across various forms of media such as the recent Netflix adaptation and video-game franchise, surprisingly it’s been over a decade since Andrzej Sapkowski last touched the series himself. Crossroads of Ravens is a new novel serving as a sort of origin story for Geralt marketed as a sort-of kind-of standalone novel (more on that to come). Covering new narrative material somewhat separated from the rest of the books due to its chronological placement, Crossroads of Ravens is an excellent entry point for Witcher fans familiar with the show or video-games looking to get into the source material books which have their own style and approach to the otherwise familiar story. That said, I personally had zero experience with The Witcher in any form apart from 2nd hand exposure courtesy of my dad’s love for the Netflix show so I went into this book with zero familiarity with the IP as a true test of whether it can be enjoyed standalone. While certain aspects were very appealing, this book overall felt like a bit of a mixed bag, ironically my ignorance with the series being less of an issue compared to the novel’s written presentation. As previously…

A futuristic scifi, techno hacker speculative fiction, and queer retelling of the Great Gatsby is a concept I never would’ve considered and one that made me do a double take, but in Jay Gatsby’s own words per K.M. Fajardo’s author’s note, “why not”? Fajardo’s debut novel Local Heavens is a brilliantly crafted book that not only is wildly creative but is also a faithfully adapted love letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original story. Modernized for the 21st century with a crazy genre-shift, this interpretation smartly capitalizes on all the best aspects of a retelling without being hindered by the typical drawbacks through careful artistic choices. Featuring beautifully poignant writing, excellent characterizations, and original storylines that work seamlessly with the original framework of events, Local Heavens is an amazing and unique read for both fans of the original book and new ones alike. “Though in this disquiet summer, a summer that pushed us forward into hedonistic apathy, Gatsby was the singular exception, flying over the dust and toils of our world on fire. Beyond that famous, corrupted name, he clung to a vestige of that old cosmic hope I’d readily believed did not exist anymore, his indestructible sincerity blossoming like an…

“Mirror mirror on the wall, give me a tale, creative from them all.” (please excuse the clunky line, I thought it would make a fun opening). Anywho, pitched as an original Snow White-inspired fantasy story, Hemlock & Silver is a novel that’s fun and light-hearted in tone with a very creative plot. While classified as a retelling book, T. Kingfisher’s standalone novel is a retelling only by the loosest criteria due to the fairytale source material used. Rather than reinventing or putting a new spin on the classic tale, Hemlock & Silver is almost an entirely original work that reads like a fantasy mystery story as opposed to a fairytale one. Featuring ambitious concepts, creative narrative allusions to Snow White, not to mention an entertaining and lovable main character, this novel was an unexpectedly great read for me that was only hindered by its meandering and underwhelming start and occasional lag in pacing. Rather than following the typical retelling premise of reinventing its source material with a genre swap, modernization, or flipping the story from a new point of view, Kingfisher’s approach is a bold one that follows an original character, scholarly poison expert Anja who is requested by the…

Part Grimm fairytale retelling, part historical fiction, and finally part original fantasy story revolving around witchcraft, Kell Woods’s debut novel After the Forest is an expansive dark fantasy book with an ambitious narrative to tell. Rather than directly retelling its source material, After the Forest instead follows the difficult life of Greta following her and her brother’s experiences trapped by a witch and her gingerbread house. A tense story filled with distrust and suspicions in a rural village, contrary to its classification as a retelling, Woods’s story is largely an original one that merely uses Hansel and Gretel’s fairytale for contextual framework. Creatively constructed with fitting prose, this book was a case of expecting one thing and getting something entirely different that wasn’t for me but was nonetheless an intriguing read outside of its frequent issues of pacing and unfocused plot. Books classified as retellings tend to follow one of two different scenarios that largely determine how the story will be read. The traditional form of retelling is one that mostly retells the original story with a unique spin, modernization, genre-swap, or similar. The other form uses the base story as a launching point for framework purposes only and uses…

A cute sapphic second chance at love via exes forced to professionally collaborate, Love In Focus by Lyla Lee is an easy and light-hearted read perfectly pitched for cozy romance readers. While the overall story is nothing groundbreaking for the genre, the novel’s plot mechanism of ex’s artistically working together on a personal interest piece involving the meaning of love is an excellent premise. Unfortunately, despite having a great foundation and numerous interesting storylines to work off of, I found Love In Focus to repeatedly disappoint at every opportunity, the overall execution being sub-par and quite dull to read. One of the most intriguing elements of Love In Focus is its focal plot mechanism, the photojournalism project “Modern Love In Focus”, featuring six couples of different ages and backgrounds sharing what love means to them. Some couples being queer, some interracial, spread across young, mid-age and senior couples, quantifying and reflecting on the different meanings and interpretations of love is a great concept. In addition to having a compelling reason to unexpectedly reunite college ex’s Gemma and Celeste, the novel’s other highlight is the story’s setting in the romantic and misty (or not depending who you ask) San Francisco as…