Review: The Nemesis

The Nemesis by S.J. Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember it took me a little while to find and read the second book in this trilogy after it came out...to say nothing of how long it took us to get Book 3. Three years, just about! Holy crap, was Kincaid leaving us hanging high and dry after the cliffhanger ending of Book 2 or what? But I have to say, The Nemesis was absolutely worth the wait, one of the most stylishly spacey action-packed books YA sci-fi ever gave us. And not too dissimilar to another genre-great series conclusion, Death's End, Kincaid gives us a book very much expanded in scope and scale, stretching across time to a degree her previous books never have. And also compressing that scale when a few big twists make themselves known and throw everything we know about the world of this universe out the window, Matrix-style. Kincaid concludes another trilogy as grandly as possible, and I have to say, as cool as her debut trilogy was, this series has blown Insignia and sequels out of the water. But now, to The Diabolic, I hereby bid ave atque vale.

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Review: Night of the Dragon

Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish it hadn't taken me this long to finally get around to reading Julie Kagawa's latest book, the conclusion to her #ownvoices Japanese-inspired fantasy trilogy. Blame all the mishmash of time and book publication schedules caused by the coronavirus, I guess. But read this book I did, and like pretty much every Kagawa book to date, Night of the Dragon is amazingly high on both action and romance, thrilling to the nth degree and pushing some of the highest stakes in the genre as these kitsune and demon adventures finally come to an end. Though of course Kagawa's got more books in the pipeline - including a return to The Iron Fey that's got me wanting to reread that series from the beginning! - to the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, I now bid ave atque vale.

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Review: Tristan Strong Destroys the World

Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though there was no promise at the time of its release that there would be a second story for Tristan Strong, it was still pretty clear that there was no way this section of the Rick Riordan Presents multiverse was going to be just one and done. And now, just about one year after Kwame Mbalia gave us the first book, Tristan's got more story to tell - naturally, because he's got the storytelling skills of Anansi on his side, up to and including to a particularly magical smartphone where Anansi is the "web developer" of the Diaspor-app, among other creations. So yeah, Tristan's not done with his adventures in MidPass and Alke, not by a long shot. And while this book doesn't yet announce a name for its follow-up, there is absolutely no way Mbalia's not giving us a third book, not with that nasty little cliffhanger. Clearly he's been learning pretty well from the master, Uncle Rick himself...

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Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

«Il y a mourir dans "je t'aime" 

Il y a "je ne vois plus que toi" 

Mourir au monde, à ses poèmes 

Ne plus lire que ses rimes à soi 

"Un malhonnête stratagème" 

Ces trois mots là n'affirment pas 

Il y a une question dans "je t'aime" 

Qui demande "et m'aimes-tu, toi?"» 

-Jean-Jacques Goldman, "Sache que je" 

Perhaps the most long-awaited V.E. Schwab book since she concluded the Shades of Magic trilogy in 2017, and certainly long in its gestation too - ten years, to hear Schwab herself say it. And after reading this lyrical, surreally dreamy, emotionally devastating novel, I can believe it. 

Review: Battle Ground

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bloodydamn goryhell, Jim Butcher. After years of waiting for more books from this amazing author, he's now given us two new Dresden Files books in 2020 alone - and while Peace Talks is something of a Prolonged Prologue, it's Battle Ground, naturally, that's packed to the gills from start to finish with some of the most gnarly, apocalyptic action Harry Dresden has faced yet. As supernatural war breaks out all over Chicago, with far-reaching consequences even beyond the last page, it almost feels like this is, itself, the Prolonged Prologue to Butcher's proposed "apocalyptic trilogy" to wrap the series up. And with the next three hypothetical books in the series bringing it to a total of 20, what better point to begin the beginning of the end? Just hope it doesn't take another five or six years just to begin that trilogy, though - if that is, in fact, next in line for Dresden and his cohorts.

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Review: Dear Justyce

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was something of a surprise that Nic Stone came out with this sequel/prequel/spinoff to Dear Martin, but she acknowledges right off the bat that it came about out of necessity. While Justyce's story was an all-important one, a searing glimpse into the life of a young Black man whose intelligence doesn't protect him from a racist system, Stone also got a lot of reader responses wondering, what about Black boys who don't come from Justyce's position of relative privilege? And so we get the story of Quan Banks, who knew Justyce when they were much younger boys, but wound up on a different track in life - no fancy private school, but a broken family (including an awful stepdad who, in his ten-year-old mind, became a real-life Count Olaf as he found his escape in A Series of Unfortunate Events) and unjust incarceration. Thus, not unlike Justyce writing letters to MLK, Quan writes letters to Justyce, hoping to get some much needed help. Luckily, Justyce has some good knowledge he's picked up in his first year at Yale (in stark contrast with his old schoolmate Jared, who's just as obnoxiously white-privileged as ever, to the point of bragging about not getting arrested for marijuana possession in Connecticut when Justyce would've most likely done hard time in the same situation.) As with the first book, Stone writes this one in a similar experimental style, incorporating bursts of heavily line-broken verse and even screenplay and interview-type formats, in addition to the letters interspersed between chapters. It's the first time I've seen her revisit one of her old storytelling formats, but then again, she's proven herself such a powerful and prolific storytelling stylist that it's only to her benefit as always.

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Review: Into the Real

Into the Real by Z Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been three years since Pibling Z, leader of the glorious Minion Horde, gifted us with a new book, and now they're back this year with two great new stories. Well, I still haven't read Soulbroken yet, sadly, because my only e-reader is my phone browser when I'm borrowing library ebooks and my library still doesn't have that one yet. I know, I know, I'm a bad Minion...but I digress. Today, I'm here to talk about Brewer's most expansive and ambitious standalone novel yet - a trio of intermeshed horror storylines, each rooted in different universal fears and fears unique to LGBTQIA+ community members. Major trigger warnings abound for blood, gore, deaths of family members and loved ones, open homophobia and transphobia, conversion therapy, and demonic terror all over the place.