Jan 14
Review of The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap
Dunlap's debut novel explores early Edinburgh surgical schools, questionable methods of obtaining study subjects, a main protagonist's...
Jan 9
Review of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Much of The Safekeep feels claustrophobic, quiet, and hopeless, but unexpected shifts late in the story turn accepted histories on their...
Jan 3
Review of Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
Frances White's debut is a locked-room mystery on a magical ship full of uncertain alliances, deadly vendettas, and a sassy and...
Dec 18, 2024
Review of Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher
Croucher's young adult queer medieval adventure romance is sweet, spunky, and full of great banter, with characters finding their way...
Dec 10, 2024
Review of Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
Our Evenings explores a young, often cruel, existence at a British boys' boarding school; later fits and starts of exploring sexuality...
Oct 23, 2024
Review of The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
The reality-show setting and LGBTQIA+ representation in Ever After flips the traditional fairy tale in satisfying, heartwarming ways in...
Jul 31, 2024
Review of Grey Dog by Elliott Gish
Grey Dog begins as an immersive historical fiction story of a young teacher with a shocking past in 1900s rural England, but it becomes a...
Jul 30, 2024
Review of In Memoriam by Alice Winn
Alice Winn's account of the unrelenting slog of World War I and the beautiful young men set against each other in the trenches serves as...
Mar 28, 2024
Review of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
The tone of Martyr! was tough for me to get a handle on for much of the book. The story is dark, nerve-racking, irreverent, tragic, and...
Feb 13, 2024
Review of Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
Lex Croucher's queer medieval rom-com--the author's debut young-adult novel--is an absolute gem; it's full of excellent banter and lots...
Jan 31, 2024
Review of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
Come and Get It is the story of an RA and the consequences of her actions related to privacy and safety; the book dabbles in issues of...
Jan 25, 2024
Review of The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power #1) by V. E. Schwab
Schwab returns to the world of the four Londons in the first of a wonderfully paced new series featuring established characters, their...
Jan 18, 2024
Review of To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit #1) by Moniquill Blackgoose
Blackgoose offers a fascinating, layered story about a strong-willed, whip-smart young Indigenous woman in a steampunk 1800s Nordic...
Jan 16, 2024
Review of A Power Unbound (Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske
Marske's quirky, funny, richly imagined magical world, complex character-building, relationship exploration, and storytelling continues...
Sep 14, 2023
Review of Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue
Donoghue's captivating historical fiction centers around two real-life young women in an early 1800s British boarding school who fall...
Sep 13, 2023
Review of World Running Down by Al Hess
Hess's dystopian Utah relies on AI, robots, and the growing, stark split between the haves and have-nots. Trans salvager Val is just...
Jul 12, 2023
Review of Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Adjei-Brenyah's novel explores in disturbing detail a version of a society that may feel familiar: a corrupt, greedy prison system; the...
Jun 29, 2023
Review of Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens
Claudia Cravens's story of a young brothel worker in late nineteenth-century Dodge City, Kansas, offers up a tough young heroine who...
Mar 9, 2023
Review of August Kitko and the Mechas from Space (The Starmetal Symphony #1) by Alex White
White's first Starmetal Symphony installment offers deadly deep-space robots, showcases the power of music, and illustrates how love can...
Jan 12, 2023
Review of Less Is Lost (Arthur Less #2) by Andrew Sean Greer
As with book one in the Arthur Less series, I was pleasantly surprised by the heart and vulnerability beneath the absurdities and funny...