Review: Shadows of Self

Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having finally read this far in the Mistborn saga...well, I did get up to the first Wax and Wayne book a few years ago, only to stop not because I didn't like the books well enough, but because I'd unfortunately fallen victim to the then-latest recurrence of the whole "Brandon Sanderson is a raging homophobe" canard when someone brought up old comments he'd made about Dumbledore. (Oh if only they could see how much he's sought to be more LGBTQ+ inclusive in recent years, especially in The Stormlight Archive...but I digress.) Point being, years late, this is my first time reading this far in Mistborn, and while I'll be giving this one a 3.5, I'll generously round it up to a 4 for Sanderson's usual beautifully complex world-building and lovely spin on steampunk and Western styles. Sure, this book doesn't feel like it moves the plot needle all that much, but there's already one more I've got from the library, and hopefully soon the last novel of this part of Mistborn before Sanderson finally embarks on the pseudo-1980s-cyberpunk-styled series I've been waiting for...

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Review: The Night Has Teeth

The Night Has Teeth by Kat Kruger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful little tale of werewolves, the wonders of Paris, and weird, weird science. Funny at times, feels-making at others (if you'll excuse my use of Uglies-speak), and downright freakish the rest of the time. Luckily, now that I'm a little more financially independent than I was in my Wattpad days (and able to order physical copies through a variety of indie bookstores!) I'll be able to read the sequels someday soon. When, I couldn't tell you. But after all these years, I shall keep on trying. Just keep trying, just keep trying...not really what Dory says, but whatever.

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Black Widow: Marvel Takes Us Back To The Movies

 **MINOR SPOILERS FOR BLACK WIDOW, PLUS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS MCU FILMS  - ESPECIALLY CIVIL WAR, INFINITY WAR, AND ENDGAME - ABOUND WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.**

It's been a minute.

After most of 2020 saw the movie theaters closed for months at a time (depending on where you live, of course, but I still lived in California at the time so maaaaaaaybe one or two months open was the best we got, and I didn't even go back there then, not even for Tenet like I'd really been hoping), 2021 is looking to be the year when, with the help of various hybrid theatrical/streaming releases and most people (assuming you can trust their Insta and/or dating app profiles anyway) taking their Covid vaccines, the box office starts finally coming back to life.

And so far, the biggest boon in this year's cultural story has been, naturally, the swan song of the great Scarlett Johansson's performance as Natasha Romanoff, going back to before her untimely death in Endgame to a period between Civil War and Infinity War when she was still on the run for violating the Sokovia Accords (and especially for assaulting the King of Wakanda, according to Secretary Ross in an early scene as he tries to apprehend her.) While it's no longer technically the start to Phase Four of the MCU like nature intended - that honor goes to WandaVision now, and all its bonkers sitcom pastiches, deep explorations of the persistence of grief, and gleeful pokes in the eye to all the fans and their theories (to the point where it almost feels like the writers deliberately made...adjustments...to torpedo the theories with extreme prejudice, as impossible as it would've been given the known production timelines and logistical difficulties posed in the world of Covid.) 

But for Black Widow, director Cate Shortland and a spot-on cast - particularly the supporting cast, many of whom do a great job acting circles around ScarJo and making promising cases for their own movies and TV shows further down the line - serve up a damn fine thriller in the vein of Mission: Impossible - a little more grounded than most Marvel productions, but still, never losing sight of where to spend all the money Disney racked up in the last few years.

Where one family leaves, another awaits.

Review: City of Reckoning

City of Reckoning by Brianna da Silva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First off, Brianna...how dare you.

No, but of course you dare.

It's been a long, long time since I was lucky enough to get an ARC anywhere. Most of those came from my time working at the Stanford Bookstore, and all of them were physical ARCs. So now, I've been lucky enough to get ahold of an ebook ARC of a sprawling, epic debut from one of my dearest friends, and I'm calling it right now - I don't expect any other book to beat this one on my Top Books of 2021 list. Maybe I'm not doing the Pinecone Awards so much on my blog anymore - I've rather let it fall by the wayside, sadly - but if I was to do the 2021 Pinecones, Brianna da Silva and City of Reckoning would steamroll all the competition.

Review: Witchshadow

Witchshadow by Susan Dennard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a while since Susan Dennard gifted us with a new novel in this series - and this one, perhaps the darkest and deadliest yet, has been delayed tons of times for tons of reasons. Like a lot of her fellow YA fantasy authors, Dennard's had a lot of health scares in recent years, as I understand it...and apparently she also had to rewrite a huge chunk of the book after sensitivity readers said she'd run into some offensive tropes or another. Can't imagine what, but for sure, Dennard made this book worth the wait...even if her characters would have words with her for what she's done to them. Especially Safi and Iseult, dragged through the wringer as they both are. And need I mention Aeduan? As much as Dennard herself seems to love "Baeduan," it sure as hell doesn't stop her giving him all the most horror she can muster. It's a tough book to read, but at this point, I think we're looking at maaaaaaybe one more book to go? If so, who the hell knows what Dennard has in mind for the finale...or how long it'll take to see it!

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Review: Ace of Spades

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been keeping an eye out for this book for a while for a lot of reasons - the title, the amazing cover, the promise of a Gossip Girl-Get Out mashup...and while I've never seen a single episode of Gossip Girl (and still don't think I ever will), any comparison to Jordan Peele's horrifying masterworks is an automatic YES as far as I'm concerned.