Review: Escape Me

Escape Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tahereh Mafi was fortunate to be able to finish two books in the new Shatter Me series for 2026 publication while she takes her time concluding This Woven Kingdom, and this book is now looking to be in the middle of another five-book saga. This time, much of the drama stems from a series of messages on a pager with no known source, but they're very aggressively reminiscent of trolls on social media...or perhaps that capering little devil Iblees from roughly the same point in This Woven Kingdom. Trying to figure out where these pager messages are coming from, and the identity of the latest threat to our heroes, is the overarching goal of this book, which leads up to perhaps the most shocking ending yet in this saga, one which I hope to see resolved in the fourth book very soon. Though I imagine we'll have to wait a bit longer while Mafi finishes her romantasy first...

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Review: The Siren

The Siren by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tomi Adeyemi is back with something completely different: dark academia in a modern setting at Dartmouth University, following a young woman with well buried mental health issues as she gets involved with the most secret of secret sororities, and their supernatural surprises.

Review: Victorious

Victorious by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Each entry in this series has felt like it really could be the end of it all - the first book was standalone, and the second felt like a neat duology wrap up. Now, there's this third and final novel, and for real for real it's the end of the road for our favorite EO's, and this time, the ending is nothing short of definitive. Still...did we really need this book? Especially when Schwab has been neglecting the Fragile Threads saga for half as many years as it took to go from Vengeful to Victorious, and with no end in sight? As much as Schwab is a fave of mine, she's long had a tendency to get stuck writing books that feel more like she was contracted to write them, and leave her best material by the wayside. So while I'm disappointed that we're still waiting endlessly for more Fragile Threads, at least this series now finally gets to rest. Vas ir...anoshe.

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Review: Dead Beat

Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After all these years, Bardugo’s best known modern and least-for-children fantasy saga reaches its long awaited conclusion. Each book having taken three years or more to come along, it’s easy to see why, with all the extensively researched Yale geography and architecture, as well as the deeply detailed occult stories - this one, in particular, feels like Bardugo really got into the nearest Egyptologist’s library, more so than ever before. While the first two books form a duology of their own, of sorts, this book’s forward momentum really brings the story to its logical conclusion, while still leaving room for further mysteries down the line if Bardugo ever gets to write them. Until then, this trilogy officially gets its ave atque vale.

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Review: Tempest

Tempest by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aveyard’s official adult debut, her love letter to Pirates of the Caribbean, isn’t getting as much love as her previous books. Hell, the first online response I saw was a Threads post calling this book “shit from a butt.” Well, it’s not my favorite from Aveyard by a long shot, but it’s clearly a labor of love for her.

Review: Sunderworld, Vol. 2: The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry

Sunderworld, Vol. 2: The Unfortunate Responsibilities of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's Ransom Riggs.

Pre-ordering IMMEDIATELY.

And after a long delay, where my initial preorder in 2025 got canceled and Riggs wound up postponing this book to 2026, he ultimately revised his trilogy plans to another duology, with the result that this book wound up being a bit longer than its predecessor and did, to an extent, feel like two books compressed into one to follow up on Book 1's cliffhanger. As for this book's ending...that can NOT be the ending, Mr. Riggs. It's just too damn good, and there's still so much to see and do in Sunder for Leopold and Emmet and Isabel and... REDACTED

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this book was how it completely flipped the horrible father figure we knew from Book 1 on his head. When I read Book 1, my first thought was that Richter was the absolute worst, such a massive and irredeemable douchecanoe, but this book reveals the truth hidden behind layers of memory revisions more than even the first book could show us.

As always, Riggs delivers a five-star read, reinforcing his status as one of the absolute best YA writers since my own young adult days. And with that, I hereby bid his second great series ave atque vale.

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Review: Blind Descent

Blind Descent by Nevada Barr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The sixth Anna Pigeon novel now goes to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, not too far from Guadalupe Mountain where her first book took place, but now with a far more intense and claustrophobic setting deep underground. This time, I was able to get an original hardcover from the 90s, including maps of the caverns which Anna explores in the course of this mystery printed inside both the front and back covers, and it hammers home just how perilous this particular journey is when these caves are so full of tight passageways and steep drops. "On rope," "off rope," and hope to God it's safe.

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