Review: Maskerade

Title: Maskerade

Series: Discworld #18, Witches #5

Author: Sir Terry Pratchett

Genre: Low Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death, murder, fatphobia, body shaming, ableism, blood (mentions)

Spoiler Warning: This book is 18th in a series, but this book and this review contain only mild spoilers of the last Witches book, Lords and Ladies.

Back Cover:

The Opera House: where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely familiar evil mastermind. But Granny Weatherwax is in the audience and she doesn’t hold with that sort of thing. So there’s going to be trouble…

Review:

Granny Weatherwax is a pretty neat character idea, but she’s also my biggest frustration with the Witches subseries. She’s mean, passive-aggressive, won’t admit she’s wrong, and determined to make people do what she thinks is best for them regardless of their opinions on the matter. Luckily for my enjoyment of this book, Granny is slowly starting to get a little bit better, and Agnes, the third protagonist along with Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, is even more fed up with Granny than I am.

Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have decided that Agnes should become their third witch now that Magret has escaped from under Granny’s thumb. Agnes, though, hates the very idea, and instead takes her spectacular vocal talent to Ankh-Morpork to become an opera singer. Granny and Nanny come up with an excuse to follow her there and interfere. Also the plot of Phantom of the Opera is going on, complete witha mysterious black-suited mask-wearing opera house “ghost,” murders, and a gorgeous lead singer named Christine (although this Christine can’t actually sing).

Agnes is prodigiously fat, and though this doesn’t bother her in the slightest, there is a lot of fatphobia from others and some of the humor is based around fatphobic jokes. Although there is quite a bit of actual humor, as well. It’s definitely not as funny as some of the other Discworld books, but I think it’s the funniest of the Witches books so far.

There’s not really anything here that I would call a main plot. There’s the whole Phantom of the Opera thing, which mainly becomes a whodunit mystery trying to figure out who is the opera house ghost so they can stop him from murdering people, Agnes trying to find where she fits into the world of opera, Granny doing her best to meddle in everything (with Nanny cheerfully along for the ride), and a very bizarre subplot about an Ankh-Morpork-born opera singer pretending to be a foreigner and really hating how everyone goes out of their way to feed him foreign food that he doesn’t like but requesting the Ankh-Morpork food he does like would blow his cover. No, I’m not sure what the point is supposed to be either.

Though I can’t say I’m a particular fan of how things worked out for Agnes in the end, overall this was a solid book. It kept me interesting, it made me laugh, I liked Agnes a lot, and Granny Weatherwax’s more enraging aspects were toned down. It’s not my favorite Discworld book, but it’s definitely not my least favorite, and it may be my favorite of the Witches books so far.

The Discworld series:

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Equal Rites
4. Mort
5. Sourcery
6. Wyrd Sisters
7. Pyramids
8. Guards! Guards!
9. Eric
10. Moving Pictures
11. Reaper Man
12. Witches Abroad
13. Small Gods
14. Lords and Ladies
15. Men at Arms
16. Soul Music
17. Interesting Times
18. Maskerade
19. Feet of Clay
20. Hogfather
21. Jingo
22. The Last Continent
23. Carpe Jugulum
24. The Fifth Elephant
25. The Truth
26. Thief of Time
27. The Last Hero
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
29. Night Watch
30. The Wee Free Men
31. Monstrous Regiment
32. A Hat Full of Sky
33. Going Postal
34. Thud!
35. Wintersmith
36. Making Money
37. Unseen Academicals
38. I Shall Wear Midnight
39. Snuff
40. Raising Steam
41. The Shepherd’s Crown

Review: Unseen Academicals

Title: Unseen Academicals

Series: Discworld #37 (Rincewind #8)

Author: Sir Terry Pratchett

Genre: Low Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death of parent (mentions), death (brief), vomit (mentions), violence, bullying, genocide (mentions), body horror (mild), racial prejudice against fantasy races

Spoiler Warning: This book is 37th in a series, but contains only the most minor of spoilers of previous Rincewind books.

Back Cover:

Unseen Academicals focuses on the wizards at Ankh-Morpork’s Unseen University, who are renowned for many things – sagacity, magic, and their love of teatime – as they attempt to conquer athletics.

Review:

I don’t know why this is categorized as a Rincewind book because Rincewind shows up as a background character in about four scenes and has two lines in the whole book. So of course I have some Thoughts about it. (Skip ahead to avoid my Rincewind rant.)

I really struggled with Rincewind at the beginning, because for the first two books he seemed more like an amusingly cowardly vehicle to explore the Discworld than an actual character to appreciate and enjoy. And then in later books, he got better. He was still cowardly, but less ruled by it, and got even funnier as he became somewhat aware of how his stories go. He was stellar in Interesting Times, and even started to grow as a character without becoming someone entirely different. I gather that this is an unpopular opinion, but I like him a lot.

Then after Interesting Times, his potential to grow into someone truly dynamic just got squandered. The Last Continent just wasn’t a fantastic setting or plot for him, and I’ll acknowledge that may be a personal opinion. In The Last Hero, he was there, but as a secondary character. In Unseen Academicals, he’s barely a background character. He seems to have gotten what he wanted – a professorship at Unseen University and nobody asking him to save the world – which I guess is good for him, but selfishly, I think he could have been great and I want to read more about him.

Rincewind aside: Once I got past the disappointment that this book is not actually about Rincewind, I could enjoy it more. The main plot was about football (the European kind), football fans, team loyalties, and such, and I wasn’t very enthusiastic about that. Part of it was because I am not and have never been a sports enjoyer, and part of it because I think this book was supposed to satirize British football fan culture, and since I’m not British and can’t confidently name a single British football team, that whole angle was lost on me.

However, there were other parts I liked a lot. Glenda was a fantastic character – responsible, practical, fat, doing a lot of things for a lot of people, sticking to safety in the familiar. I loved her dynamic with Juliet, her pretty airhead friend whom she desperately wanted to protect from both the world and herself. I also very much enjoyed Nutt, who I also found relatable in his being nice but a little odd and doing his best to learn how actual people interact. They were both a lot of fun.

Actually, except for Rincewind not being in it and not getting the sports fan culture satire, this whole book was a lot of fun. I liked getting to see some of the ordinary people in Ankh-Morpok and behind-the-scenes folk of Unseen University. Glenda and Nutt were both entertaining and relatable in their own ways, and even though I’m not a sports person, I enjoyed watching the wizards attempt to play sports. Ponder Stibbons is even becoming an entertaining character in his own right.

There was a little bit when I started reading that I felt like I had missed something important. That feeling did not stick around for very long, but I think I may go back to reading this series in publication order for the time being. Skipping around in the early series didn’t seem to be such a big deal, but these later books seem much more interconnected and I feel like I’m supposed to read them in publication order.

Even though Unseen Academicals makes a terrible conclusion to the Rincewind sub-series – mainly because it has hardly any Rincewind in it – it does make an entertaining stand-alone entry in the Discworld series.

The Discworld series:

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Equal Rites
4. Mort
5. Sourcery
6. Wyrd Sisters
7. Pyramids
8. Guards! Guards!
9. Eric
10. Moving Pictures
11. Reaper Man
12. Witches Abroad
13. Small Gods
14. Lords and Ladies
15. Men at Arms
16. Soul Music
17. Interesting Times
18. Maskerade
19. Feet of Clay
20. Hogfather
21. Jingo
22. The Last Continent
23. Carpe Jugulum
24. The Fifth Elephant
25. The Truth
26. Thief of Time
27. The Last Hero
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
29. Night Watch
30. The Wee Free Men
31. Monstrous Regiment
32. A Hat Full of Sky
33. Going Postal
34. Thud!
35. Wintersmith
36. Making Money
37. Unseen Academicals
38. I Shall Wear Midnight
39. Snuff
40. Raising Steam
41. The Shepherd’s Crown

Review: Where the Drowned Girls Go

Title: Where the Drowned Girls Go

Series: Wayward Children #7

Author: Seanan McGuire

Genre: Portal Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Body horror (mild), trauma, anxiety attacks, child abuse, injury details (brief), blood (brief), fatphobia, body shaming, bullying, suicide attempt, forced institutionalization, eating disorder (mentions)

Spoiler Warning: This book is seventh in a series, and both it and this review contain spoilers of previous books.

Back Cover:

“Welcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you’ve already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company.”

There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again. It isn’t as friendly as Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

And it isn’t as safe.

When Eleanor West decided to open her school, her sanctuary, her “Home for Wayward Children,” she knew from the beginning that there would be children she couldn’t save; when Cora decides she needs a different direction, a different fate, a different prophecy, Miss West reluctantly agrees to transfer her to the other school, where things are run very differently by Whitethorn, the Headmaster.

She will soon discover that not all doors are welcoming…

Review:

This book is Cora’s book. Cora was in Beneath the Sugar Sky and Come Tumbling Down, but she hasn’t had her own story yet. This one is hers.

But it’s quite a bit different from the previous books. It’s not about her adventures on the other side of her door and how she was spit back out into our world against her wishes, or about her adventures at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, but rather her attempts to escape from the trauma that those things gave her. It also introduces the Whitethorn Institute, which is an alternate school to Eleanor West’s, and it’s not nearly as nice.

It turns out, though, than many of the worlds the door lead to are not as nice as the ones our previous protagonists have gone to (if places like the Moors can even be called “nice” – though some mentioned here are worse). The theme of trauma after the magical adventure runs throughout all the Wayward Children books, but it’s especially strong here. No doors are passed through in this book besides the ordinary type, and Cora has to reckon with what happened the last time she went through one.

I found Cora mildly dislikeable in Come Tumbling Down, but she was very relatable and lovable in this one. I absolutely relate to her frustrations with being fat and other people’s insistence that she chose to be that way and therefore she is lazy/disgusting/morally reprehensible, developing an eating disorder over it and still not losing enough weight to be considered “not fat,” and her attempting to hunch down and be smaller because she feels like she takes up too much space. It’s only mentioned as backstory in a couple spots, but it was so completely relatable. Her attempts to escape from the symptoms of her trauma even if people around her think her solution will also be bad for her was also relatable. Basically if you’re fat and/or traumatized, you’ll probably relate to her.

The Whitethorn Institute was also interesting, and the complete opposite of Eleanor West’s school. There were interesting characters there (including Regan from Across the Green Grass Fields), several twists about what’s actually going on here, trying to fix traumatized kids by traumatizing them in different ways, and a fascinating look at the more cruel, uncaring side of the doorways and the people that come back through them. It was very dark, it was full of trauma, but it was fascinating.

The Wayward Children books are always so good. I can’t say this one is perfect, mainly because I think Cora’s trauma was managed a little too fast to be believable, but it’s an enjoyable story in a fascinating world (or rather, a world populated with people who have been to and returned from fascinating worlds). Since this book just came out, I have no idea when they next one will be released or who it will be about (if you’re reading this, Seanan, Kade needs his own book!), but I absolutely want to read it when it is.

The Wayward Children series:

Wayward Children short stores

1. Every Heart a Doorway
2. Down Among the Sticks and Bones
3. Beneath the Sugar Sky
4. In an Absent Dream
5. Come Tumbling Down
6. Across the Green Grass Fields
7. Where the Drowned Girls Go
8. Lost in the Moment and Found

Review: Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Title: Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Series: Zoey Ashe #1

Author: David Wong

Genre: Cyberpunk

Trigger Warnings: Blood, death, gore, violence, major injury, death of parent (mentions), death of animals, misogyny, toxic masculinity, incel-type ideology, guns, body horror, pedophilia, child abuse, human trafficking (mentions), racism (brief, by villain), sexual content, sexual harassment (brief, by villain)

Back Cover:

Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.

An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.

Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.

A young woman from the trailer park.

And her very smelly cat.

Together, they will decide the future of mankind.

Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop’s dumpster on a hot summer day.

This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you’d want to follow.

Will Zoey figure it all out in time? Or maybe the better question is, will you? After all, the future is coming sooner than you think.

Review:

I have read several spectacular masterpieces of fiction this year. But it’s been a long, long time since I had so much pure fun with a book.

I read the first chapter of this book somewhere online, and despite the lackluster title, it ended up on my reading list when someone had to clarify that a serial killer was not in fact a pancake and I actually laughed. The rest of the book continues in the same vein. There’s blood and violence and torture and gore but told with such wit and humor that I could swing back and forth between serious bodily injury and unrestrained laughter and it didn’t even feel jarring.

The protagonist is Zoey – fat, dumpy, working as a barista, living with her stripper mother in a Colorado trailer park. She knows her absent father is a billionaire and hates him. Then she is targeted by a serial killer, at which point she finds out that 1, her father is dead; 2, she is the key to getting into his super-secure vault; and 3, every warring faction in the high-tech futuristic city of Tabula Ra$a has a bounty on her head. So Zoey is off to Tabula Ra$a, where the “suits” – the crack team her father assembled to do his dirty work – don’t seem particularly trustworthy, but they seem to want her less dead than everyone else.

That sounds like I’m writing a back cover, doesn’t it? I can’t help it, this book lends itself so well to being described like something you want to read. Want a cyberpunk hellhole? Welcome to Tabula Ra$a, where the skyline is always advertising, cybernetic enhancements are a thing you can get, construction and demolition is constant, everyone is constantly streaming their every move, and the highest priority is more viewers. Want a poor person suddenly rich? Meet Zoey, formerly living in poverty and now sole inheritor of her father’s many billions. Want to watch a well-oiled machine of morally gray experts work? The suits have you covered. Want some futuristic violence? With Moloch as the primary bad guy, you have all that in spades.

If you’re at all familiar with incel ideology, you’ll immediately recognize Moloch as the incel ideal. Toxic masculinity in human form, he believes that feelings are watering down the masculinity of true men and what men really need to do is kill off the weak men and put women back in their lesser, disposable place, and to do that all they need are physical strength, addiction to “the juice” (adrenaline, I think), and willingness to commit violence for any reason or no reason at all. He was frustrating without being too frustrating, and a wonderfully hateable villain.

In the first third or so of the book, I kept thinking about all the ways I would have done things differently than Zoey. I told myself that I would have settled into the world of the rich and powerful just fine. But then I realized that’s kinda the point. I grew up rich (my parents are literal millionaires) and I leaned how to make things happen from my mother, a thin rich white cishet woman who expects the world to bend to her whims and if it doesn’t will make it so. I may be broke and in debt now, but because of my privileged background, I would find it a lot easier to fit into that world than Zoey, who grew up with a single mom in a trailer park.

This book does have some interesting things to say about wealth and social class, even though it’s muddied a bit by the “good guys” be billionaires whose money came from human trafficking among other unsavory activities. Zoey herself is struggling to go from “trailer trash” (her words) to head of a multi-billion-dollar empire. Squatterville, an abandoned building where hundreds of homeless people live, is an important part of several plot events (although that message is undercut by the fact that the homeless people there are viewed more as pawns than human beings). I think it was trying to say good things, but they didn’t come across very clearly.

This book is not perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination. Zoey’s characterization flipped from terrified and cowering to brave and witty and back with no rhyme or reason, the one major character death felt cheap (and it took me a long time to realize it wasn’t part of a secret plan, they were actually dead and I was supposed to be sad), and if you think about it there are dropped plot threads everywhere. But if you think too hard about it you’re missing the point. This is not supposed to be a book you analyze and think critically about and whatnot. It’s supposed to be entertaining and fun, a bit of fluff reading for those who prefer their fluff on the bloody cyberpunk side. And at that, it 100% succeeds.

The Zoey Ashe series:

1. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
2. Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick

Review: Changeless

I do wish they would put a fat model on the cover, because it’s stressed that Alexia is in no way thin.

Title: Changeless

Series: Parisol Protectorate #2

Author: Gail Carriger

Genre: Paranormal/Mystery

Trigger Warnings: Death, blood (extreme), ghosts, body horror, sexual content, racism, fatphobia, body shaming, vomit (mention)

Spoiler Warning: This book is second in a series, and reading past this point will expose you to spoilers of book one, Soulless. Proceed at your own risk.

Back Cover:

Alexia Maccon, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears; leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. So even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can. She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

Review:

In case you misunderstood the back cover as badly as me, Lord Maccon does not poof into vanishment – he just leaves abruptly, busy dealing with a lot of important nonsense and feeling far too busy to tell his dear wife about it. Alexia is not, in fact, hunting a magically vanished husband in this book. She’s hunting the answer to a completely different mystery, and discovering her husband in Scotland is not her main purpose for going there.

Since Alexia and Lord Maccon are already married, this book relies more on the paranormal and mystery aspects than the romance (although there are plenty of sexual moments included). Personally, I enjoyed that quite a lot. This book has the rest of the London werewolf pack returning from war with a brief but delightful moment of don’t-you-know-who-I-am, traveling to Scotland to meet the werewolf pack there and finding out why Lord Maccon left them twenty years ago, some new fun steampunkesque technology, and a lot more information about how werewolves, ghosts, and preternaturals work.

The characters were just as delightful as in Soulless. Alexia was her same adventurous tact-be-damned self, her friend Ivy still had her dramatics and horrible hats, Lord Maccon was still … well, Lord Maccon, gruff werewolf and unintentional fashion disaster. There was also the introduction of Madame Lefoux, a French inventor, and Alexia’s maid Angelique, who received only a brief mention in book one. There is also Sidheag the Alpha female of the Scotland pack, who I’m 99% sure is Sidheag from the Finishing School books.

I very much enjoyed the mystery and learning more about the supernatural elements of this world. But I’m not sure I’m going to read book three. Mainly because of the ending. The mystery is solved, the person(s) responsible are dealt with, and then in the last few pages there is yet another twist that leaves Alexia in a distinctly not-very-good position. I am absolutely sure it gets better before the end of book three, because Alexia is not the kind of person who lets things like this keep her down, but I actually find myself fond of Alexia and don’t want to read about her in a terrible situation with few allies. I may come back to it eventually, because at least books four and five seem to have positive things happen and I do want to see more of Alexia, but right now I care about her too much to want to jump right into reading about bad things happening to her.

The Parisol Protectorate series:

1. Soulless
2. Changeless
3. Blameless
4. Heartless
5. Timeless

Review: Soulless

Title: Soulless

Series: Parisol Protectorate #1

Author: Gail Carriger

Genre: Paranormal/Romance

Trigger Warnings: Body horror, blood, kidnapping, confinement/imprisonment, medical procedures, torture, heterosexual sexual content, racism/colorism, body shaming, death

Back Cover:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations.

First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire–and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Review:

I thought this was more steampunk than paranormal romance going in, since I read Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series set in the same world and it was very steampunk and very enjoyable. This book had very few steampunk elements and leaned much heavier on the paranormal aspects of the world and Alexia’s romance with Lord Maccon.

But, surprisingly, I didn’t hate it. I actually rather enjoyed it.

Despite a bunch of dark trigger warnings, the book overall was very lighthearted. Alexia is just a little too brown to be considered attractive and a little too outspoken to be considered marriageable, so she and her family have resigned her to spinsterhood. The only reason she keeps getting invited to society parties is because she’s an absolute nerd and can keep the intellectual gentlemen engaged in intellectual conversation while the high society types busy themselves with gossip and fashion and being pretty, things which Alexia doesn’t care about one bit. Personally, Alexia would rather join the supernatural police agency that Lord Maccon heads, but being a woman she isn’t allowed. That doesn’t stop her from doing her own investigative work. She is unflinchingly polite and proper even while doing far more poking around and getting into a fair bit more trouble than a proper lady should be in, and she was delightful.

And despite the skinny model on the cover of the book, it is stressed many times on page that Alexia is actually pretty chubby.

There is also a marvelous cast of supporting characters: Alexia’s best friend, who has absolutely atrocious taste in hats; a flamingly gay vampire gentleman who prides himself on knowing everything; Lord Maccon’s werewolf pack beta, who despite being a werewolf is also a professor and a huge nerd; and more. I especially enjoyed every minute the gay vampire gentleman was on the page.

The romance part is also quite enjoyable. There’s a lot of sexual tension between Alexia and Lord Maccon (often resolving to very risky heavy petting), but it takes them both a while to realize they’re into each other romantically too. There’s miscommunication drama, mainly stemming from the fact that Lord Maccon has no idea how to romance a woman who isn’t also a werewolf. And there’s the delightful contrast of Lord Maccon, who is a passable gentleman but isn’t always up on the finer details of politeness, and Alexia, who is perfectly aware of the finer details of politeness and decorum but simply does not care.

This book does fall into the common tropes of fashion of Victorian-set books written by modern writers – mainly, women’s fashion of the times (especially corsets and voluminous skirts) being restrictive to common activities. Many historical sewing youtubers have also posted rants about this very thing, and at least regarding corsets I can say from experience, that if you put them on properly and know how to wear them they won’t impede you a bit (and as a sufferer of back pain, I’ve found properly-fitted corsets to be actually helpful and supportive). That is, overall, a minor quibble, though.

Great characters both protagonist and supporting, a fascinating world, a solid plot, and an actually enjoyable romance combine to make this book a remarkably entertaining romp through a vaguely-steampunk supernatural-filled Victorian London. I’m definitely going to read book two, which I’m sure if nothing else will be entertaining.

The Parisol Protectorate series:

1. Soulless
2. Changeless
3. Blameless
4. Heartless
5. Timeless

Review: Bearly a Lady

Title: Bearly a Lady

Author: Cassandra Khaw

Genre: Paranormal/Romance

Trigger Warnings: Fatphobia, blood and injury (mention), mild body horror

Back Cover

Zelda McCartney (almost) has it all: a badass superhero name, an awesome vampire roommate, and her dream job at a glossy fashion magazine (plus the clothes to prove it). The only issue in Zelda’s almost-perfect life? The uncontrollable need to transform into a werebear once a month. Just when Zelda thinks things are finally turning around and she lands a hot date with Jake, her high school crush and alpha werewolf of Kensington, life gets complicated. Zelda receives an unusual work assignment from her fashionable boss: play bodyguard for devilishly charming fae nobleman Benedict (incidentally, her boss’s nephew) for two weeks. Will Zelda be able to resist his charms long enough to get together with Jake? And will she want to? Because true love might have been waiting around the corner the whole time in the form of Janine, Zelda’s long-time crush and colleague. What’s a werebear to do?

Review

Despite the paranormal elements of this book, it is, at its heart, chick lit. I am not usually a fan of chick lit, but I picked it up because 1. Fat and fasionable protagonist, and 2. Fat protagonist is bisexual.

Zelda is fat, works at Vogue, and also turns into a bear once a month. I love that she owns her fatness and the only problem she has with being fat is that other people look down on her for it and the world is not built for fat people. And I love that she doesn’t let people give her crap for it. This book focuses on romantic adventures and misadventures, so a lot of it is Zelda being flustered, confused, and putting her foot in her mouth a little bit, but she’s still pretty awesome. (And honestly, I would love to see her be more badass in a different kind of story.)

The side characters were interesting, but since this is a novella, they didn’t get fleshed out a lot. Zora the vampire roommate was pretty cool and I would have loved to get more of her. Benedict the fae was an interesting character, especially with the glamour element, and Jake and Janine the love interests were okay, but their time on page was mostly in Zelda’s thoughts as opposed to them actually being there.

This book was enjoyable, but it’s just not my genre. Chick lit and romcom kind of stuff just isn’t my jam. The characters would be cool and I would love the heck out of them in a different plot, but even though I enjoyed it, I didn’t really connect with the romance angle. If you enjoy chick lit, you’ll probably love the heck out of it.

Review: Beneath the Sugar Sky

Title: Beneath the Sugar Sky

Series: Wayward Children #3

Author: Seanan McGuire

Genre: Portal Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Death, skeletons, mild body horror, drowning, blood mention

Spoiler Warning: This book is third in a series, so this review has spoilers of the first book, Every Heart a Doorway. (There are no spoilers of the second book, Down Among the Sticks and Bones). If spoilers matter to you, proceed with caution.

Back Cover:

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests…

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Review:

This story is set after the events of the first book, Every Heart a Doorway, and it brings back several of the characters from that – namely Christopher and Kade, although Nancy does make a small appearance. The main character is a new one, though: Cora, a fat girl who went to an underwater world and was a mermaid before accidentally ending up back in our world. I say Cora is the main character since she’s the one whose thoughts we get to hear, but really everybody in the adventuring group plays roughly equal parts.

The adventuring group consists of Kade and Christopher, who we met in Every Heart a Doorway; Nadya, who must have been in Every Heart a Doorway but who I’d completely forgotten about; Rini, who we’ve never met, daughter of Sumi, who we have; and Cora, who’s competely new. It’s a short book so there’s not a lot of space for character development, but you still get a fair bit from Cora – mainly her feelings about her fatness from being bullied about it, which was relatable to me as a fat person.

The story leads the group through several worlds, including Nancy’s Underworld (where we briefly get to see her again) and Confection, the world Sumi/Rini came from, which is … wild. It is, after all, a nonsense world. I don’t want to spoil the fun of finding out about it, but I really liked that we actually get the origin story for Confection and how it became the way it is.

The whole plot is the group trying to track down the different pieces of Sumi, who was murdered in the first book, so they can bring her back to life so she can save Confection from a tyrant and also get married and have Rini. I never lost interest in the book, but the stakes never seem really high – the only real consequence of failure is that Rini would disappear. Despite the fact that they are trying to literally put a dead girl back together, this book is a lot more light and fun than the other ones. Less gore, less death, and a lot of baked goods.

I think I liked the previous two books better, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this one and definitely intend to finish the series.

The Wayward Children series:

Wayward Children short stores

1. Every Heart a Doorway
2. Down Among the Sticks and Bones
3. Beneath the Sugar Sky
4. In an Absent Dream
5. Come Tumbling Down
6. Across the Green Grass Fields
7. Where the Drowned Girls Go
8. Lost in the Moment and Found