Review: Blood Heir

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a little hard to rate this book and/or review it without thinking about the controversies that erupted around it roughly this time last year, leading to the book first being pulled from release, then rescheduled for almost six months later. It's especially unfortunate that a lot of major plot points (though mercifully not all of them) got spoiled in the name of exposing what some perceived as severely problematic content. Given, though, that Zhao wrote a lot of the in-universe atrocities in this book in reference to contemporary issues in Asia - most notably human trafficking and slavery - I'm actually glad that she, based on what I'm seeing in this finished copy, didn't shy away from the content that caused such strong reactions in the community before.

Review: All the Stars and Teeth

All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can see now why Tomi Adeyemi not only blurbed Adalyn Grace's instant-bestselling debut, but also accompanied her on the first West Coast leg of her book tour as well. Adeyemi and Grace are, in a lot of ways, cut from the same cloth, both writing lavishly detailed fantasies with whip-smart on-point social commentary and complex magic systems taking lots of inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender (fittingly, Grace was an intern on The Legend of Korra, a fact I managed to be completely unaware of until the day I went to Kepler's Books to get a signed copy.) Grace's unique twist on the formula involves a princess with a bit of difficulty mastering the one form of magic that the royals of this world are supposed to have, getting her hands dirty while also caring how good she looks in that dress, navigating the dangers of seas teeming with mermaids ready to lay hands and get bitey, tangling in all the ways with a charming pirate scoundrel, and in the last hundred pages or so, some seriously major twists that...yeah, that's exactly why Adeyemi did the blurb. Grace may only be planning a duology, but I'm really psyched to know how exactly she can give this whole story a conclusion. This one, the ending leaves open so many unpredictable potential twists...and also, now I see exactly why, when I asked my question at the event, Grace was soooooo coy about her answer...

View all my reviews

Review: Ali Cross

Ali Cross by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After nearly thirty years writing mystery novels with Alex Cross, James Patterson now gives us a spinoff for the kids, centering on Alex's precocious son, Ali - already shaping up to be a great junior detective in his own right. And for his first case, it's naturally pretty personal - one of his best friends, Gabe Qualls, for whom Ali is one of his few friends both IRL and in the popular video game Outpost (a kind of mashup of Minecraft and Fortnite), has gone missing, and literally nobody is putting more effort into finding him than Ali. And Alex, of course, since the elder Cross gets quite a few interludes in third person - unusual since he's a first-person narrator in all his stories, but then again, it's Ali's turn now. Patterson's no stranger to writing from a precocious kid's POV - look at Max Ride or Rafe Khatchadorian - and Ali Cross, not that I expected any less, is more than worthy of membership in his bibliography. Good thing is, Patterson's already planning a series out of this - can't wait to recommend it to all the kids!

View all my reviews

Review: Starsight

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book of Sanderson's latest YA series moves a lot more slowly than its predecessor, but that's because this time around, we're still working to process the big reveals at the end of Skyward. With all the knowledge of this particular fictional universe turned upside down, and bursting open with the inclusion of yet more aliens, Spensa and M-Bot have their work cut out for them if they're to survive in a universe determined to eliminate them at all costs. And while most of the side characters are really sidelined - Jorgen, for instance, really only gets a few brief interludes every 80 pages or so - streamlining the story to focus much more on Spensa and M-Bot is a real boon. After this, we're halfway through what Sanderson is promising to be a four-part series, but it's going to be a really hard wait till 2021 for the third book. But at least he's got the fourth Stormlight Archive novel lined up for November of this year, so bonus!

View all my reviews

Review: The Conference of the Birds

The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hard to believe that five years ago, the year began with me looking forward to what I was expecting to be the final book of the Miss Peregrine series. But of course Ransom Riggs had more adventures in store. Picking up from the terrifying cliffhanger of A Map of Days, Riggs brings us back into the peculiar world in fine, fine form as always - a much shorter book than its predecessor, but no less powerful or high-stakes for it.

Review: The Impossible Contract

The Impossible Contract by K.A. Doore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Doore's second book of The Chronicles of Ghadid diverts away from the story of Amastan, making him a supporting character while the spotlight instead goes to a new queer assassin par excellence: Thana. She's got her own unique challenges to face as Ghadid is under threat from not only the usual undead nonsense from The Perfect Assassin, but also an Empress from a distant land threatening to colonize the great city in the sky - and let's be honest, she's already off to a great start, so it'll take all of Thana's skills to help stop her. Like its predecessor, The Impossible Contract moves as fast as the sands shift, and while it feels slightly less lyrical with its new POV, it showcases Doore's own ability to adjust storytelling style as the plot demands pretty well. One more book in the trilogy, and now I know exactly what that title means...

View all my reviews

Review: The Perfect Assassin

The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a bit since I first saw the first two books of K.A. Doore's debut trilogy - the last one not being out yet - on the fantasy shelves at work, and for a while I've been wanting to read them based almost entirely on S.A. Chakraborty's recommendation. Chakraborty is one of the biggest genii in the biz, so her rec is always a golden one, and The Perfect Assassin is no exception. Set in a wonderfully rendered Arabian-style city in the skies, featuring assassins and jann and ghuls for a lyrical blend of supernatural thrills and chills, and also some LGBTQ+ rep all around - especially in our main character Amastan, who's ace and homoromantic according to Doore herself. And his dynamic with Yufit...well, that's the stuff of legend. It's part of what really makes me glad I got Book 2 from the library along with this one!

View all my reviews