Review: Watch Me

Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tahereh Mafi is back to her signature dystopian saga five years after Imagine Me in the real world, and ten years in universe, and the superpowered shenanigans are giving me flashbacks to the glory days of Maximum Ride. Here, we have two new POV’s: Rosabelle, a young assassin raised at Ark Island, the last bastion of the Reestablishment, as well as James, Warner’s little brother, now all grown up and just as much a dangerous prettyboy as his famous relation. But he’s definitely got a lot more influence from the great Kenji Kishimoto in his personality, being quite foul of mouth and dirty of mind. But especially the foulmouthed part. Rosabelle, meanwhile, has more than a touch of Juliette in her personality - though she’s far less fractured in her mind, she still gets a bit of Juliette’s little freeze up moments under stress, reflecting in the sudden skipping of lines in her prose. And yes, all our OG series faves show up - Adam doing his thing, Warner and Juliette married and expecting a child (which is far easier said than done since Juliette’s reproductive system almost doesn’t work at all thanks to her family’s experiments), and Kenji reinforcing his status as my permanent fave with how chaotic and cool he is. It’s a fast paced thriller with the promise of more in yet another cliffhanger as only Mafi can deliver them…hopefully we get the next book this time next year.

View all my reviews

Review: The Second Rebel

The Second Rebel by Linden A. Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The sequel to The First Sister is a 3.5 rounded down to a 3 largely because, unlike its predecessor, it tends to drag at times. Not only does that owe to the book being about a hundred pages longer this time, but also because instead of having three POV's (more a sort of 2.5 since Hiro's story was told in audio transcript interludes and therefore felt somewhat disconnected), this one expands with a fourth POV from Lito's sister Luce, who is pretty interesting but doesn't quite stand out compared to Lito, Hiro, or especially Astrid (her true name being what toplines her POV chapters now.) 

Review: The First Sister

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first in a trilogy that I saw recommended on r/RedRising plays out more like The Expanse and The Handmaid's Tale collaborated and presented a multilayered, action-packed thriller with a hyper-diverse cast of characters. The title character is one of three major POV's, stripped of her name and voice and forced to live as a "comfort woman" to various interplanetary military commanders. Interestingly, it's not as patriarchal as you might think - it's heavily rooted in a matriarchal religion, and First Sister is assigned, early on, to a new commander who presents much more female. My guess is that Lewis, being nonbinary, wrote this in an effort to understand a new perspective on feminity in a world that places the wrong kind of value on it.

Review: A Drop of Corruption

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 for me on this second mystery of Ana and Din, those foulmouthed investigators stepping into ever fouler territory. This time, the foulness comes less from creeper plants that like to infect and kill people, and more from the generally humid jungle atmosphere of the outlying city of Yarrowdale. Despite its English-like name and the pallor and green-ness of its people, Yarrowdale reads more like a fictionalized version of Thailand or Vietnam or some other southeast Asian country, trying to stay independent despite the Empire’s wish to bring them into the fold. Especially because they happen to have the secret of all secret labs in their waters, a fallen Leviathan corpse converted into a creepy island lab known only as the Shroud. Though the moldy environs and the mystery of the Shroud play into the story pretty well, it’s much less biopunk at its core this time around, focused instead on a long and drawn out multilayer of mistaken identity - mistaken by anyone and everyone who could verify it until it’s too late. While this book is largely standalone, there’s still the promise of at least one more adventure in this series, and I’m hoping Bennett’s got all the stops to pull out on that one.

View all my reviews

Review: Platirius: Kikhani vs Platirius

Platirius: Kikhani vs Platirius by D.L. Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As promised, Hannah brings the first arc of her saga of sci-fi novellas to its conclusion with a third book that's almost double the length of either of its predecessors. Which is justified, because there's a lot of family drama to wrap up in this one while also setting the stage for at least two upcoming arcs, the Coldarius duology and a new Janius series, which I expect will be another trilogy, but it's still got yet to be formally announced like Coldarius. Where this book shines the most is the tense relationships (such as it were) between the royal sisters and their conflicting views of how life in the galaxy ought to be, as well as the absolutely unhinged villainy of Queen Aiki of Kikhani, who thinks she's flaming hot shit when she really ain't shit as a person, and in terms of beauty, she's about as far from flaming hot as you can get. But also, Gallium's character development here, ahead of the increased focus on him and his homeworld in the upcoming duology...I have to say, he's one of the most interesting characters Hannah has come up with yet, and I can't wait to keep the story going with Coldarius very soon...

View all my reviews

Review: The Summer Guests

The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second book of The Martini Club is more local and personal for its cast of characters. Largely shifting away from the international intrigue of The Spy Coast, as well as its contrast between present day winter and past flashbacks to sunny Malta, this one takes place almost entirely in the present day, except for a brief 1972 flashback. Instead of the international intrigue, it's a smaller scope story, centered on a missing teenage girl from a wealthy family, with parallels to a past case and past infamous CIA stories. Though the latter part of the book shifts oddly and incongruously into conspiracy theory territory, Gerritsen still handles the story and characters with her usual aplomb. And, if you're good enough to read all the way to the end (at least in the physical version I picked up at the library; can't speak for other formats in this regard), you'll be rewarded with a bonus short story officially crossing over with the world of Jack Reacher.

View all my reviews

Review: The Scorpion and the Night Blossom

The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It will never cease to amaze me that despite YA Twitter’s attempts to shoot Amélie Wen Zhao’s career dead in the crib, she continues to publish beautiful new fantasy novels while most of those who targeted her have failed to catch on like they expected. And, even better, Zhao gives us increasingly Chinese stories to reflect her culture, and this time, she’s 100% correct: this is for the C drama girlies. I may not be one myself - not a girlie, and unfortunately I’ve experienced very little of C dramas, though I’ve watched a K drama or two with similar historical and fantastical stylings - but that might have to change after reading this book. The start of another duology, this one has some of Zhao’s highest action and romance stakes yet. The action stakes were nothing unexpected to those of us who have followed her career from the start, but the romance…whoo, that’s Zhao’s finest work yet in that field. Here’s hoping we see Book 2 this time next year…

View all my reviews

Review: The Martian Contingency

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve been waiting for almost five years to finally read the fourth novel in the Lady Astronaut universe, the third to feature Elma York as the primary POV. Unfortunately, this one is definitely a mixed bag for me, especially if it’s to be the last book in the series as Kowal has indicated. On the one hand, it’s still very technical in its approach, giving tons of reasons as to how the Martian habitat (do NOT call it a colony; Elma will hate your guts) has to deal with nearly impossible odds stacked against the survival of everyone living within.

Review: Emberclaw

Emberclaw by L.R. Lam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

L.R. Lam returns to the world of Dragonfall for the concluding entry of their duology. I think they were planning to make a trilogy at first, but for many personal reasons, they decided to conclude the series in this book instead. I don’t blame them - they took it very hard when the first book struggled at first in the face of poor online ratings, especially from people who couldn’t accept that book in its unorthodox, multi-POV, queer-normative glory. Luckily B&N picked the book last year as a monthly fantasy selection, and I’m hoping that helped not only Dragonfall find its audience more than ever, but Emberclaw here as well.