Book Review: WILD SPACES

TITLE: Wild Spaces

AUTHOR: S.L. Coney

121 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250866837 (paperback, also e-book and audio)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

Puberty is strange and confusing for everyone no matter how much your parents may tell you about what to expect. It’s especially so for the twelve-year-old boy at the center of S.L. Coney’s novella Wild Spaces, who comes to learn that all the things he doesn’t know about his mother’s family are connected to the changes he’s beginning to experience. Generational/hereditary trauma is hard enough when it’s purely emotional; what happens when it’s genetic, and those genes aren’t human?

Wild Spaces takes genres that perhaps shouldn’t work together (Southern Gothic, Eldritch Horror, and Coming of Age) and melds them so seamlessly that not only do they work together, they become something that feels fresh and new (Southern Eldritch Boys Adventure, perhaps?).

The story opens with a classic “boy meets stray dog” scene straight out of a Tommy Kirk/Kevin Corcoran Disney movie that melds a high level of wholesome adorableness (waiting to see if anyone will come to claim the dog before deciding on its new name (which ends up being the boy’s favorite pirate, Teach)) with a fair warning that this is about as light-and-fuzzy as the story gets, and that a monster is on its way. I loved this opening salvo of nostalgia tinged with danger. But from there, the story takes darker and darker turns beginning with the arrival of the boy’s maternal grandfather, who has clearly been estranged from his daughter for a long time. It’s the first time the boy and his father are meeting the grandfather, and the scene is wrought with awkward introductions that more than hint the grandfather is not a good man. Even Teach doesn’t like him. Exactly how the grandfather is not a good man is doled out slowly at first, until his true nature is revealed. These early scenes take place in a two-story house on the Carolina coast during a sweltering summer that builds to a massive storm (a storm that is both a physical danger and a metaphor for the havoc the grandfather is wreaking on their previously calm lives). If “remote house during a hot and stormy summer during which family tensions spill over and secrets are revealed” doesn’t make this book a Southern Gothic, I’m not sure what would. The reveal of the grandfather’s true nature alongside the physical changes the boy is experiencing eventually tip the story into very clearly Eldritch Horror. I don’t want to reveal too much about that aspect of the book. It took me by surprise and a few scenes actually scared me.

Even when I wasn’t outright scared, I was still uncomfortable (in all the right ways), and it took me some time to pinpoint why: the author’s narratorial voice leaves all the characters excepting Teach nameless, and that set me at a remove from them and their situation. They are the Boy, His Father, His Mother, His Grandfather. The physical details given make them real, while the use of titles (for lack of a better term) in place of names makes them a little surreal. I kept thinking “I should know these people at least well enough to know their names … why don’t I know their names?” It’s a really, to me, effective way of keeping the reader slightly off-kilter – which is exactly what the boy is feeling as he learns how much he doesn’t know about his mother, her family, and thus himself.

I highly recommend Wild Spaces. It’s a fast moving, discomfiting novella that will make you consider how family secrets affect a child’s development, and how unconditional love can help a child overcome trauma.

(Side-note: It occurs to me that Wild Spaces and Will Ludwigsen’s A Scout Is Brave make excellent companion pieces, and even though the authors did not intend it they do seem to be in conversation with each other. Both meld coming of age boys adventure and a gothic-style seaside setting with eldritch horror but with vastly different stylistic tones and narratorial voices. I’ve read both books twice now, and I suspect both will be on my “occasional rereads” shelf going forward.)

Book Review: THE CITY IN GLASS

TITLE: The City in Glass

AUTHOR: Nghi Vo

215 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250348272 (hardcover; also e-book and audio)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

Nghi Vo has quickly become one of those handful of authors whose work I will buy without even reading a synopsis about the plot and whose new books I will usually read as soon as I purchase (See also: Seanan McGuire, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Silvia Moreno-Garcia), even if I’m a bit slow when it comes to posting the reviews.

The City in Glass, Vo’s latest novel, is a stunning portrait of responding to grief, recovering from trauma, and finding common ground. The demon Vitrine has been the largely unseen patron of the city of Azril for hundreds of years. Very few of the citizenry know her as more than a legend, and the few that do know she’s real tread a careful path with her. She has loved the city since she first arrived from another continent and has guided it to its current glory. And then a group of angels arrive, declare the city sinful, and destroy it. The angels begin to depart to their higher realm once their “work” is done, but Vitrine manages to curse one of them who then must be left behind. This all happens in the first chapter of the book and is the impetus for the rest of the action, so I’m not really spoiling anything. This first chapter is a master class in how to set a reader up, going from joyful immersion in a new setting to the complete destruction of that setting in a few short pages. Again, since I hadn’t read the front cover flap synopsis, I had no idea what was coming, and I was as devastated as Vitrine.

Vitrine, being immortal, does not have to move on from the ruins of her beloved city to find life and sustenance elsewhere. And so she begins the slow process of watching the land heal and foster new life – and thus, eventually after hundreds of years, a new settlement for her to watch over. We watch Vitrine move through various stages of grief for the loss of not just so many loved ones (both human and animal) but for the mementos and landmarks of the city’s long history. (I cannot help, in retrospect, compare Vitrine’s reactions to what I’ve watched friends in North Carolina go through thanks to last fall’s hurricane, or what I imagine the people of Los Angeles will be going through as they strive to move on from the current fires of winter 2025.) Vitrine cycles through sadness, anger, depression, and excitement for what develops – but Vo makes it clear that these emotions are not compartmentalized or managed on a straight timeline. They overlap, they recur. Setbacks for the city inspire setbacks in Vitrine’s mental and emotional state.

And the presence of the angel she cursed, the being she holds partly responsible (not fully, because the blame lies with the angel’s cohort as well, but they are beyond Vitrine’s reach), does not help her recovery and in fact hinders it for quite some time. Thanks to her curse, the angel is tied to the land that once held Azril and thus is tied to Vitrine. He also goes through a cycle of defiance (that he did anything wrong), regret (at what’s he’s done), and hope (that he can be part of healing the damage to Vitrine’s heart). It is never easy to heal from trauma when the cause of your trauma is still present and a part of your life, and Vo explores that emotional territory beautifully and without attempting to provide any kind of easy “one size fits all” answer to how to navigate the situation.

I also loved the time-lapse “development of a civilization from small settlement to world power” aspect of the book. Vo takes the new city through the stages of agriculture-based to commerce-based and gives it threats domestic, foreign, human, and natural (including a plague). This could have been a much longer, much more detailed novel about the city’s history alone, but viewing the highlights (and low points) of that history through the eyes of an immortal felt more appropriate. This story really is Vitrine’s, and so much can change in the relative blink of an immortal’s eyes.

I cannot recommend The City in Glass highly enough, especially to readers who enjoy deep character studies accompanied by intriguing worldbuilding.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The City in Glass was published in October 2024, so this review is a bit late.

Book Review: ADRIFT IN CURRENTS CLEAN AND CLEAR

TITLE: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear

AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire

146 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250848338 (hardcover; also e-book and audio)

MY RATING: 4 stars out of 5

 Since this is the tenth book in the Wayward Children novella series, perhaps a quick recap of what the series is about is in order. Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is for children who (like Dorothy, Alice, and the Pevensie clan) have journeyed through a Door to another world and returned to a home they no longer fit into. Disbelieving parents send these “troubled” kids off to boarding school – and if the kids are lucky, that school is Eleanor West’s, where they will find refuge, respite, and adults who understand them while they await the day their Door will find them once again. The odd numbered books in the series take place in the characters’ present day and usually involve a core group of students going on a quest to save a classmate (even though Eleanor has a “No Quests” rule they find ways to work around). The even numbered books, like this one, focus on one student’s backstory – their portal adventure.

As such, Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is a great jumping on point for readers new to the series who may not realize it’s part of a series. We have one focal character – Nadya, who in the odd numbered present-day sequence last appeared in book 3, Beneath the Sugar Sky – and one new world to explore, Belyyreka also known as the Land Beneath the Lake.

We got little of Nadya’s backstory when she appeared in Sugar Sky. Basically we were told that she had spent a “lifetime” in Belyyreka and then fell in a river and found herself back on Earth. So this volume gives us her complete story. Again, I won’t spoil the plot of the current book, but McGuire has a lot to say about both living with a physical difference you don’t consider a disability but others do (Nadya is born in Russia missing one arm, but doesn’t consider herself to be at a disadvantage because of it – but she also recognizes that the kids who are not missing limbs are the ones who are more likely to get adopted and she does what she can to help them make the good impressions they need to make) and how not every adoption experience is the beautiful, loved filled, all-for-the-right-reasons 1980s television movies of the week (and Lifetime or Great American Family Channel movies in the current day) would have us believe (Nadya does eventually get adopted, but for what is obviously all the wrong reasons). Going through the Door that manifests in a turtle pond brings Nadya eventually to a different sort of adoption experience, and we as readers get to see the effect going from a situation in which a child is not understood into one in which the child is accepted as is can have on a child’s mental health and self-image.

Belyyreka is another fascinating McGuire creation, a world where everyone breathes water (including, automatically, anyone who stumbles through a magic Door from an air-breathing world). McGuire’s worldbuilding is always rich and detailed and Belyyreka is no exception. I’m sure there are folkloric antecedents McGuire built this world off of, but I am unfamiliar with them and haven’t had a chance to research before posting this review. The society Nadya finds herself a part of involves humans who fish and farm with the aid of giant turtles. Yes, you read that correctly: giant turtles. Prior to this book, my favorite giant turtle was Gamera. I think now (without spoilers of any kind) it's Burian.

To be clear: reading Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear is a complete experience – one could read this and not read any of the other books in the Wayward Children series, and not feel cheated (just as one can read the first Oz or Wonderland or Narnia books and feel like a complete story has been told). But I hope that readers coming to the series through this book will want to seek out Beneath the Sugar Sky to see where Nadya’s story goes next, and then be intrigued enough to read the rest of the series. It definitely made me want to re-read Sugar Sky.

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review: THE LIES OF THE AJUNGO

TITLE: The Lies of the Ajungo

AUTHOR: Moses Ose Utomi

98 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250849069 (hardcover, also in e-book)

MY RATING:  4 stars out of 5

SHORT REVIEW: In The Lies of the Ajungo, Moses Ose Utomi gifts us with a story that turns that basic concept at odd and poignant angles, serving as commentary on the politics and societal maneuverings of our own world while still giving us a heartbreaking coming-of-age story set in an intriguing secondary fantasy world. The main character’s journey from innocent boy facing a brutal rite of passage to a man knowledgeable about the way the world really works is neither rushed nor dragged out. His path is not easy and involves un-learning “facts” and opinions that have been ingrained. Utomi also beautifully captures the “fairy tale / fable” voice in his omniscient narrator – I truly felt at times like Tutu’s story was being told around a campfire for a community of listeners. The style kept me engaged.

LONGER REVIEW: The Lies of the Ajungo could easily have been a grand multi-book YA fantasy series: young boy goes on a quest to save his city from the machinations of a more powerful, evil, city-state. Instead, Moses Ose Utomi gifts us with a story that turns that basic concept at odd and poignant angles, serving as commentary on the politics and societal maneuverings of our own world while still giving us a heartbreaking coming-of-age story set in an intriguing secondary fantasy world.

Tutu lives in the City of Lies, a drought-stricken city on the edge of the Forever Desert where what water is available is provided to the city by the Ajungo, a domineering foreign city-state. The Ajungo’s price? The tongues of every citizen at or above the age of thirteen, so they make speak no ill of the Ajungo. With his mother on her deathbed, Tutu approaches the city’s leader for a camel and supplies to go in search of a better water source. He is granted one year, with the reminder that “there are no Heroes in the City of Lies,” and that once he’s outside the city limits, “there are no friends to the City of Lies.” He heads out expecting no help from anyone he might meet along the way.

Of course, Tutu encounters a series of challenges to his quest, from desert wildlife he’s never seen before to humans he assumes are the Ajungo. But he also learns more of the outside world and his city’s relationship to it, through his encounters with three sisters who hail from a city where the Ajungo have demanded a tribute of ears, and a wise man from a city where the Ajungo demanded eyes. I was done with the book before I realized how deftly Utomi had worked in the classic “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” imagery in the form of the body parts the Ajungo choose to demand from the populace of these different cities. The trope is usually used to connote someone’s willful ignorance of the world around them; I think this is the first time I’ve seen it used as a tool of power, to subjugate and control the masses. Subtle and effective!

Tutu’s journey from innocent boy facing a brutal rite of passage to a man knowledgeable about the way the world really works is neither rushed nor dragged out. His path is not easy and involves un-learning “facts” and opinions that have been ingrained. Watching him go from untrusting loner to a team player without ever losing sight of his original mission is painful at times; Utomi doesn’t shy away from the anguish Tutu feels over his mother’s impending death or the inevitable betrayals that are a part of stories like this.

The Ajungo, who seem to have an answer to every city’s problem but always at a steep price, are the evil that looms over the entire book. I will not spoil the big reveals nor the resolution, but I will say that both are well-seeded, well-earned, and extremely satisfactory. And Utomi beautifully captures the “fairy tale / fable” voice in his omniscient narrator – I truly felt at times like Tutu’s story was being told around a campfire for a community of listeners. The style kept me engaged.

According to various online sources, The Lies of the Ajungo is only the first book in the Forever Desert series. While I think it stands perfectly well on its own as a complete whole, I do look forward to returning to this world in future volumes.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The Lies of the Ajungo released on March 21, 2023.

Book Review: LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND

TITLE: Lost in The Moment and Found (Wayward Children #8)

AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire

146 pages, Tordotcom Publishing, ISBN 9781250213631 (hardcover, e-book, audio)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

SHORT REVIEW: Lost in the Moment and Found may just be the most heartbreaking entry so far in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, commenting as it does on the ways in which we lose our innocence: sometimes suddenly (the unexpected death of a beloved parent; the unwanted advances of a dangerous adult) and sometimes so subtly we don’t even notice the change is happening. Content Warnings for: gaslighting, grooming, death of a parent, childhood trauma, emotional abuse of a child. But Antsy runs before anything can actually happen, and the Door that appears to her takes her to The Shop Where The Lost Things Go. Not every Door leads to Grand Adventure, but sometimes mundane things can be just as dangerous. Lost in the Moment and Found isn’t the easiest book to read in the Wayward Children series, but it is an important one with what it has to say about the ways children are manipulated and taken advantage of and about how we start on the road to healing from trauma.

LONGER REVIEW: Lost in the Moment and Found may just be the most heartbreaking entry so far in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. Which is not something I thought I would ever say after reading the end of In An Absent Dream (book #4), but there you have it. Because the even-numbered books in this series are stand-alone stories set in the characters’ pasts and can be read in order, I’m not going to assume anyone reading this review has read Absent Dream and spoil that ending – suffice to say, the conclusion of Lost in the Moment feels like Absent Dream’s opposite twin. People who have read both will understand what I’m getting at.

Lost in the Moment and Found is the portal story of Antionette, called “Antsy,” and it starts with the heartbreak of a child witnessing the death of a beloved parent. This is not a spoiler, as it happens in the first few pages and sets the stage for everything that will come after, but more of a Content Warning: if childhood loss of a parent disturbs you, you should go in to this book forewarned. In fact, this is one of several Content Warnings. All of the Wayward Children books deal with heavy topics, but this one involves gaslighting, grooming, emotional abuse of a child, and the clear intimation of impending sexual assault of a minor. But McGuire also assures us in an opening note: “Antsy runs. Before anything can actually happen, Antsy runs.”

And when Antsy does run, the Door that appears for her, with the traditional admonishment to Be Sure written above it, takes her to The Shop Where the Lost Things Go. Unsurprisingly, this is yet another of McGuire’s intriguing and deeply-developed portal worlds – but with a difference. There is no Quest for Antsy to go on to save the locals from a Great Evil before she can go home; there is no clear villain to overcome. There are just lost things to be catalogued and shelved until the person who lost them shows up to claim them, or until they are so forgotten they can be sold to someone else. The Shop has two other residents: a secretive and commanding old woman named Vineta, and a talking magpie named Hudson, who hire Antsy because of her ability to open the Doors that appear throughout the shop, allowing Vineta and Antsy to go shopping across myriad portal worlds. (Most of the worlds Antsy visits are worlds readers of the series have not seen before that I hope we’ll see more of – but I have to admit I might have squealed a bit in delight at the brief appearance by my favorite of the portal worlds we have seen before. I won’t spoil which one, or when it appears. It’s a fun call-out to earlier books.)

Also unsurprisingly, all is not as it seems with the Shop or its residents. The question that drives the narrative is whether or not Antsy will figure out what’s going on before it is too late for her to return home. The reader, of course, realizes the danger Antsy is in long before she does, but the reveal of the depths of that danger and its origins is beautifully revealed.

Lost in the Moment and Found comments on the ways in which we lose our innocence: sometimes suddenly (the unexpected death of a beloved parent; the unwanted advances of a dangerous adult) and sometimes so subtly we don’t even notice the change is happening (one of my favorite quotes from the book: “That’s one of the things about living in a body. It can change, but the ways it changes today will be the ways it has always been tomorrow. If the modification isn’t noted in the moment, then it can be all too easily dismissed.”). And while I found the book heartbreaking at multiple points, I also found it poignant and personal and imbued with hope that Antsy (and all of us) will eventually find the happiness and love she has lost.

Lest you think the book is a complete downer: there are plenty of moment of intrigue, of joyous exploration, and, without spoilers, comeuppance for at least some of those who deserve it. There are also hints at the nature of the portal Doors and why they appear to whom they do.

Lost in the Moment and Found isn’t the easiest book to read in the Wayward Children series, but it is an important one with what it has to say about the ways children are manipulated and taken advantage of and about how we start on the road to healing from trauma.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from TorDotCom Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Lost in the Moment and Found releases today, January 10th, 2023.

Book Review: INTO THE RIVERLANDS

TITLE: Into the Riverlands (Book three of the Singing Hills Cycle)

AUTHOR: Nghi Vo

100 pages, TorDotCom, ISBN 9781250851420 (hardcover, e-book, audiobook)

MY RATING:  4 stars out of 5

SHORT REVIEW: Into the Riverlands is the third entry in Nghi Vo’s excellent series of novellas chronicling the adventures of Cleric Chih, a non-binary monk from the Monastery of Singing Hills, whose mission is to collect stories for preservation so that cultural memory might extend beyond the passing of the participants of the stories and those who tell them. This time, a chance encounter in a remote inn brings Chih into contact with fellow travelers straight out of a Wuxia film: a talented young martial artist, the martial artists’ traveling companion, and a husband and wife pair who know the Riverlands better than anyone Chih could hope to encounter but who may have secrets of their own. The travel scenes are full of excellent stories-within-the-story and crisp dialogue. The fight scenes, when they happen, are beautifully choreographed and come with a palpable sense of danger.

LONGER REVIEW: Into the Riverlands is the third entry in Nghi Vo’s excellent series of novellas chronicling the adventures of Cleric Chih, a non-binary monk from the Monastery of Singing Hills, whose mission is to collect stories for preservation so that cultural memory might extend beyond the passing of the participants of the stories and those who tell them. As with the previous entries, there is just the right balance of introspection and action, of listening and doing, propelling the story along and leaving questions for the reader to ruminate on.

Chih and their Neixin travel-mate Almost Brilliant (do not call her a bird, thank you very much) have dined with the former lover of an empress and faced down sentient tigers, usually using a combination of storytelling and careful questioning to resolve conflict. This time, a chance encounter in a remote inn brings Chih into contact with fellow travelers straight out of a Wuxia film: a talented young martial artist of the “Southern Monkey” school, the martial artists’ traveling companion and sworn sister, and a husband and wife pair who know the Riverlands and its history better than anyone Chih could hope to encounter but who may have secrets of their own. The trip of course is not without excitement thanks to the apparent resurgence of a legendary bandit group. The travel scenes are full of excellent stories-within-the-story and characters disagreeing with each other on some details. The fight scenes, when they happen, are beautifully choreographed and come with a palpable sense of danger. I genuinely wondered if everyone we met at the beginning of the book would survive. (No spoilers as the that.)

We learn a bit more about Chih’s personality (not vain, but aware of how a Cleric should appear; not overtly religious but aware that sometimes their duty is to perform religious ritual; not a fighter by nature but willing to stand up for what’s right and protect those who can’t protect themselves) in this book, and a better sense of the relationship between Chih and Almost Brilliant (who comes across as more bossy and egotistical and less patient than in the first book in the series (having been absent from the second)).

As usual, Vo’s dialogue is crisp and full of hidden meaning for the reader to prise out as the story develops. Characters have depths not apparent when they are first introduced – and the line between the personal, historical, and legendary is not always clear. Vo also trusts her readers to put the pieces together and doesn’t spell everything out by the end of the book, which I greatly enjoy. I found myself, days after finishing the book, thinking about the connections between the characters, the stories they told about themselves, and the history/legends they shared.

Even though this is the third book in the series, the story is completely stand-alone and can be enjoyed/understood without having to have read The Empress of Salt and Fortune or The Tiger Came Down from the Mountain. In fact, I can’t recall any obvious references to either book. If they were there, they hopefully will intrigue readers starting with this book to pick up the previous two.

I truly hope Nghi Vo has many more tales of Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant to share with us.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This review is very late. Into the Riverlands published on October 25, 2022

Book Review: SUMMER SONS

TITLE: Summer Sons

AUTHOR: Lee Mandelo

372 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250790286 (hardcover, also available in audiobook, e-book. Paperback due on August 16, 2022)

DESCRIPTION: (from inside front cover): Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble.

And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Lee Mandelo’s Summer Sons is about as close to an ideal modern gay Southern Gothic novel as we’re likely to ever get. An intriguing set-up (the apparent suicide of a best friend uncovers secrets perhaps best left covered) allows Mandelo to explore not just the bonds between best friends but the way toxic masculinity fosters secrets and separation. All the men in this book have a tough time expressing what they’re really thinking and feeling; there’s a lot of deflection, denial, and just plain silence. There were several times I found myself shouting at the characters to “JUST TALK ALREADY.” It’s frustrating, but in an effective way, building tension for characters and reader alike.

It’s clear from the beginning that it’s not just Andrew’s long-unrequited love for Eddie that drives him to find out why Eddie so suddenly committed suicide. Exactly what else is driving Andrew, why even while in denial he always placed Eddie so much above every other relationship, is one of the slow-burn sub-plots of the novel. All is revealed eventually; the slow parceling-out of the details is paced perfectly for the reveal to hit with maximum “holy shit” effect. As Andrew struggles with accepting his own past, his love for Eddie, and the possibility that he might be falling in love again, his mental state swings from depressed to disturbed and back again. It’s a fantastic character study, a deep look into how depression and anxiety work, especially on someone as closeted as Andrew is.

The new circles Andrew finds himself thrust into are full of interesting characters with their own secrets and agendas that don’t overlap quite the way one might expect. There wasn’t a character introduced that didn’t pique my interest.

And Mandelo fills the book with mood: from the first scene to the denouement, the story fairly drips with claustrophobia. The three main locations (three very different houses) feel close and confining, but so do the outdoor scenes (especially a particular party scene), and even the racing scenes (these boys love their fast cars, and so do the ghosts) despite, or perhaps because of, how well Mandelo captures that sense of speeding down dark roads with the woods on either side barely visible on moonless nights.

There are plenty of twists and turns, and a healthy dollop of supernatural activity and dread, making this a great summer horror read.

I originally received an electronic Advanced Reading Copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. For assorted reasons, this review did not get posted at that time. With the paperback edition coming out in August 2022, I thought it was time to rectify that.

Book Review: SEASONAL FEARS

TITLE: Seasonal Fears (Alchemical Journeys Book 2)

AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire

475 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250768261 (hardcover, also available in e-book and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!

Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul.

Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.

So, when a new road is laid out in front of them—a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together—walking down it seems to be the only option.

But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts.

It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all….

"One must maintain a little bit of summer even in the middle of winter." —Thoreau

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Seasonal Fears, the second book in Seanan McGuire’s “Alchemical Journeys” series, is in many respects a classic genre road-trip novel: the lives of the main characters are upended, everything they thought they knew about their world thrown into confusion, because of a supernatural event, after which they must make their way across the country, pursued by evil/adversarial forces, to solve the mystery/finish the quest/find their destiny. Along the way, the characters face their own insecurities and their perceptions of themselves and their friends are challenged (and confirmed or altered).

I had no problem ‘feeling’ the stakes of the journey (even though I was quite sure I knew what the outcome of the journey would be), because of how well McGuire establishes Melanie and Harry from the very first time we meet them, which is several years before the main action of the book. Fans of McGuire’s Wayward Children and Up-and-Under series know how well she writes pre-teens and teens, and that skill is on full display here both when we meet the characters briefly at age six or seven (first or second grade) and when we meet them again as seniors in high school. I instantly believed Harry and Mel’s feelings for each other and the way each navigates the world based on their family life (Mel with a single father and deceased mother and twin sister; Harry with a loving set of parents who also happen to be very rich). Their relationship is not possessive in either direction but is equal in all ways: Harry’s concern for Mel’s physical health is matched by Mel’s concern for what Harry will do after she dies. Each is the other’s anchor. This is even more true once the events of the novel, the road trip to the Labyrinth where the new King(s) or Queen(s) of Summer and Winter will be crowned, commence. Without the emotional anchors of Harry and Mel, Seasonal Fears might have been just another fantasy/horror road trip novel. And I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that several times in the novel, I teared up at how much Mel and Harry love each other, and the lengths they’re willing to go through to protect each other even before things get weird.

The book is also populated with a number of interesting supporting characters and antagonists who complicate things along the way. As mentioned, I was never really in doubt as to the outcome, but several times along the way, I found myself thinking “Okay, this is Seanan, we’re pretty much guaranteed a happy ending, but I can’t wait to see how Harry and Mel survive encountering [XXX].” (I don’t believe in spoiling major plot points, so I’m not going to even name the characters I’m thinking of here.) And because this is Seanan, the antagonists in question do have personality and agency and a deep belief that they deserve what they want – they are far from the one-dimensional roadblocks one often finds in fantasy/horror road-trip novels.

Then there’s the alchemical underpinnings/world-building, which is deep and wonderful and thought-provoking and provides an interesting spin on the traditional “human avatars of natural forces” concept. It is clear that McGuire has put a great deal of thought into how all this works, and she makes every effort to explain it clearly multiple times in the book. Like Harry, I initially struggled a bit with wrapping my brain around the concepts – but also like Harry, I eventually “got it.” Supporting characters Jack and Jenny serve as the author’s mouthpieces when the alchemical stuff needs explaining to Harry and Mel and to the reader.

Seasonal Fears is set it the same world as McGuire’s previous novel Middlegame, which also featured heavy alchemical underpinnings. While this book takes place after the events of Middlegame, it is not a direct sequel. Seasonal Fears builds on Middlegame thematically, for sure, and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that characters from Middlegame do show up in Seasonal Fears – but their roles are purely supporting and their time “on stage” is relatively brief. Still, it was good to see them.

I am highly confident Seasonal Fears will appeal not just to Seanan McGuire fans, but to fans of fantasy/horror road-trip stories and fans of books about alchemy operating in the fringes/underneath the natural world. And I very much hope it sells well enough that book three in the series gets greenlit sooner rather than later. McGuire, of course, already knows where she wants the story to go, and I can’t wait to go there with her.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Seasonal Fears published on May 3, 2022, so I’m only a day late!

Book Review: AND THEN I WOKE UP

TITLE: And Then I Woke Up

AUTHOR: Malcolm Devlin

176 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250798077 (paperback, also available in e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…

Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: I love a good unreliable narrator, and Spence, the narrator of And Then I Woke Up, absolutely fits that description. Of course, being unreliable isn’t really his fault: his world has been turned upside down twice thanks to the latest plague, and sometimes his understanding of events is a bit muddled between what really happened and what he thinks happened. Reliable or not, Spence’s voice is captivating, pulling the reader along as he jumps between his present (returned to Ironside, as we find out in the opening pages of the book), his recent past (time spent outside the facility locating a fellow inmate’s plague-victim “crew”), and his earlier life (as a member of a different plague-victim “crew”). It’s not often I pronounce that a book is “unputdownable.” As much as I love novellas, I usually end up taking at least two sittings to read one of this length. But And Then I Woke Up turned out to be “unputdownable” for me, and I suspect it will also for many of my friends who love horror.

While I enjoy apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction that takes time to explain the scientific or political underpinnings of whatever plague/crisis the world is facing, I really appreciated that author Malcolm Devlin did not spend any time on that aspect of world-building here. The nature of the plague, exactly how it works, is as unclear to the reader as it is to the character narrating the story. Spence is not a scientist, a reporter, a politician: he’s an average guy who has held down a number of jobs and is working as a dishwasher when the plague breaks loose. He doesn’t understand epidemiology; he just understands that suddenly some people are zombies, and some people aren’t, and that he needs to do whatever he needs to do to survive this zombie apocalypse.

Except that, as the book description above points out, it’s not actually the zombie apocalypse, but rather a distortion in how people perceive reality. This is a horror novel that is more-than-topical, taking on the rise of “false news” and the societal effect of the mindset that everyone’s opinion is as valid, if not more valid, than actual fact. Throughout the novella, Devlin touches on how just a few “true believers” can sway the perceptions of “followers” as well as how tenuous “deprogramming” efforts can be even when someone voluntarily leaves the cult (or in this case, the “crew”) when they start to question the beliefs they’re following.

While there is plenty of bloodshed and death in the book, it is not described in excruciating detail. This is not gross-out horror; it’s more psychological, as both the reader and Spence come to terms with the things he and others have done while subject to the plague. Concentrating on the psychological aspect, on Spence’s unsurety about certain events and absolutely certainty of others (along with hints that what he’s certain about may not be what actually happened), gives the book the narrative drive that kept me engaged from first page to last.

Absolutely recommended for folks who want their horror to be thought-provoking along with being disturbing and bloody.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from TorDotCom Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review: COMFORT ME WITH APPLES

TITLE: Comfort Me with Apples

AUTHOR: Catherynne M. Valente

103 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250816214 (hardcover, also available in e-book and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from publisher): Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.

It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

MY RATING: 5 of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: This is one of those reviews where I’m at a loss for exactly how much to say. Yes, I know the book has been out almost three months as of this writing and some folks reading this have probably already read reviews that have spoilery details. On the off chance you have not, though – I’m not going to reveal the big twists.

So what can I say?

Any fan of Cat Valente’s beautiful use of language to propel story should love this for the words alone. The structure of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, the repetition of words and phrases – it’s all crafted with care towards keeping the reader invested in the story, and I loved every moment of it.

The pacing of Comfort Me with Apples is about as perfect as one can get in a story of this style. No time is wasted trying to lull the reader into thinking everything is fine before the big twist. From the beginning, there is no doubt that something is very wrong in Arcadia Gardens; if the language of the opening paragraphs of the residents’ agreement doesn’t tip you off, Sophia’s first thought (I was made for him) should. The question of course is: just what is wrong with Arcadia Gardens? Is this a Stepford Wives situation? Has Sophia been brainwashed and stuck in a village where no one is who they seem, ala The Prisoner? Is Sophia even a reliable focal character, or is she imagining much of what she sees? The story could plausibly go in any direction, but readers who are paying attention will figure out where it’s going around the time I did if not earlier. (And for me, it was only a few pages before what’s happening is made explicit.)

The in-story action is broken up occasionally with quotes from the Arcadia Gardens Housing Association’s Rules. They give the reader a moment to breath, to think, and they are highly effective. They’re also increasingly controlling and creepy as they continue, and really make me glad I don’t live in a gated community.

One more recommendation: if at all possible, read Comfort Me with Apples in one sitting. It’s only 103 pages in hardcover. Carve out the time. It’s worth it.

I received an electronic advance reading copy from the publisher via NetGalley.