Magic is drying up in Great Britain and the blame is about to be placed on the country’s most hated magician.… Sorcerer to the Crown was the debut novel by Zen Cho, which came out back in 2015. It’s a striking read-alike to a more recent release, The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk. Both explore sexism and clashing cultures in a magical alternate Regency setting. But Sorcerer to the Crown adds one more element that I love—the fae. Continue reading Review of Sorcerer to the Crown–Ambition and Fairy Bargains
Category: Review
The Gentleman and the Thief Review
A music teacher who moonlights as a sneak thief and a penniless gentleman with a knack for uncovering secrets—what could possibly go wrong? The Gentleman and the Thief by Sarah M. Eden is the sequel to The Lady and the Highwayman, one of my favorite books from 2019. I’ve been keeping this cozy historical romance at the ready to serve as a comfort read during this dark and dreary winter, and I’m so glad I did. This book had everything I’ve come to expect from the Dread Penny Society series: an abundance of mystery, a sweet courtship between two lovable protagonists, and a clever interplay with the uniquely Victorian literary phenomenon of the penny dreadful. If you need to keep the love going post–Valentine’s Day, I can’t recommend this series enough! Continue reading The Gentleman and the Thief Review
Review of The Living Dead—A Posthumous Zombie Novel
Death is not the end. George Romero, famed father of the zombie flick never quite got to lay out his full vision of the zombie apocalypse in film. Instead, he turned to writing and spent decades drafting and making notes for a grand zombie epic that wouldn’t be held back by budgets, producers, and the whims of Hollywood. Unfortunately, this magnum opus was left unfinished at the time of Romero’s death in 2017. That’s where Daniel Kraus came in. A life-long Romero fan and celebrated author (he recently co-wrote the novelization of The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro), Kraus sifted through all of Romero’s writings and notes, did an impressive amount of research, and worked to put together a finished novel that stayed true to Romero’s spirit. The result is The Living Dead by George Romero and Daniel Kraus, which came out from Tor on August 4. Continue reading Review of The Living Dead—A Posthumous Zombie Novel
Dark Wood Tarot Deck Review
I just bought myself the most delightfully gothic tarot deck! I’ve been dabbling in tarot for several years now, and you may remember my 2016 review of the Raven’s Prophecy Tarot by Maggie Stiefvater, the deck that first made things click for me. Since then, I’ve continued working with the Raven’s Prophecy deck, as well as with the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot by Lisa Hunt. But I’m always on the lookout for new decks that call to me and can help me connect deeper with tarot. Recently, in a moment of self-indulgent quarantine shopping, I found myself scrolling through the impressive selection of tarot decks available on Bookshop.org. I came across the Dark Wood Tarot, which had just come out in June. It takes the structure of a classic Rider-Waite-Tarot deck but places it in a fantasy woodland setting as a metaphor for shadow work. As soon as I saw the artwork on the cards, I knew that I needed the Dark Wood Tarot in my hands immediately. Continue reading Dark Wood Tarot Deck Review
Review of Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology
The Gothic has always been a place where marginalized gender expressions and sexualities could be explored—though in the past, this was often either done through deeply buried subtext or in a way that punished transgression and reasserted the prevailing societal norms. Today, however, queer Gothic is one of the most lively and prolific areas of the genre, and many authors are writing stories where queer identities are overt, accepted, and even celebrated. Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology, edited by Celine Frohn, collects a whole set of stories that do just that. The anthology came out back in February from Nyx Publishing after raising money through a successful Kickstarter campaign. Continue reading Review of Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology
Vampires: First Blood, Volume I Review
Dracula is the vampire lord who brought fame to the undead monster of legend, the one we’re all most familiar with. But the concept of vampires didn’t spring fully formed from Bram Stoker’s mind. Who were the literary vampires that came before Dracula and paved the path for him? Editor James Grant Goldin seeks to answer that question in his two-volume collection Vampires: First Blood, published back in July. The volumes are divided by gender, with the first volume focusing specifically on “The Vampire Lords.” This is the one I’ll be reviewing today. Continue reading Vampires: First Blood, Volume I Review
Queen of the Conquered Review
How do you know if you’re the hero or the villain of your story? Sigourney Rose certainly sees herself as the hero in Kacen Callender’s adult fantasy debut Queen of the Conquered, but by the end of the novel we’re not quite so sure. Remember this book? It was one of the ones I highlighted back in October in my Slytherin Season post about books with snaky covers and resourceful, ambitious protagonists. Well, Queen of the Conquered certainly delivered on that front. Continue reading Queen of the Conquered Review
Review of Burn the Dark–Witch Hunters and Hauntings
After wiping out witches all around the country, there’s only one place left for Robin Martine to go: home. A witch-hunting Youtube star returns to her hometown and confronts her past in Burn the Dark, the first book in S. A. Hunt’s fantasy/horror series Malus Domestica. If that title sounds familiar, it may be because the series spent several years as a self-published top-seller on Amazon. But last week, Burn the Dark finally came out in print from a traditional publisher, and can now be found on shelves at your local bookstore! Continue reading Review of Burn the Dark–Witch Hunters and Hauntings
Review of Spirits Unwrapped—An Unconventional Mummy Anthology
While you’re unwrapping your gifts this holiday season, how about unwrapping a few ancient mummies, as well? (Except, not literally. The Victorians used to do that, and it was a pretty sketchy practice…) Spirits Unwrapped, edited by Daniel Braum, is an anthology of fourteen unconventional mummy tales. It was released by the small indie publisher Lethe Press back in October and has finally made its way up to the top of my post-Halloween book pile. Continue reading Review of Spirits Unwrapped—An Unconventional Mummy Anthology
Review of Women’s Weird–Bringing Female Authors Back into the Spotlight
As Halloween approaches, it’s time to get weird! Last month, I read Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, which brought my attention to the many gaps in our understanding of the history of these genres, caused by the tendency of past (and some present) critics to value male authors over their equally inventive and influential female contemporaries. Well, a small press in the UK is looking to fill one of those gaps with the collection Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890–1940, edited by Melissa Edmundson. Appropriately, the book is being released on Halloween day. Continue reading Review of Women’s Weird–Bringing Female Authors Back into the Spotlight