Book #16 of 2022: Visser by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Chronicles #3) The Chronicles have been a consistently strong corner of the Animorphs franchise — perhaps surprisingly so, given how little they feature of our familiar teenage animal-morphing freedom fighters. In this third volume, for example, the spotlight lands on Visser One, the Yeerk commander …
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Book Review: Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
Book #15 of 2022: Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #7) I might be over this series, which initially wowed me in its considerations of children who depart from dangerous yet fulfilling fantasy worlds only to discover a mundane life that no longer understands them. There’s great pathos in that concept …
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Book Review: The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Book #14 of 2022: The Actual Star by Monica Byrne There’s so much to love about this novel that I hardly know where to start. It’s speculative fiction, yet thoroughly researched, with a thoughtful and detailed note at the beginning reviewing the care with which author Monica Byrne has approached this project as well as …
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TV Review: Fringe, season 5
TV #6 of 2022: Fringe, season 5 A very strange season, and a very strange ending to Fringe. Following up on the flash-forward episode “Letters of Transit” from the previous year, this final run finds the team frozen in amber for two decades, then thawed out to fight the invading Observers who have meanwhile taken …
Book Review: Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron
Book #13 of 2022: Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron (Kingdom of Souls #2) This #ownvoices YA fantasy novel — unrelated to the Diablo III expansion that amusingly shares its name — picks up soon after 2019’s Kingdom of Souls leaves off, with its protagonist newly empowered in the Orisha magic she never thought would …
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Book Review: The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #12 of 2022: The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #1) While I think the first trilogy of this fantasy saga remains its most thematically brilliant segment, and the second neatly integrates a new co-protagonist for a different perspective and set of psychological issues to work …
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TV Review: Star Wars: Visions, season 1
TV #5 of 2022: Star Wars: Visions, season 1 This anime series from last year is an anthology of short films (13-22 minutes each), from a variety of different Japanese production studios, with no particular plot or character links between episodes beyond a weird shared fixation on kyber crystals. It’s been getting some rave reviews, …
Book Review: The Hollow by Agatha Christie
Book #11 of 2022: The Hollow by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #26) Also published under the title Murder After Hours, this is one of the more fun Hercule Poirot mysteries, since so many of the suspects seem to have a clear motive for offing the murdered man, with convoluted romantic entanglements straight out of a …
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Book Review: The Proposal by K. A. Applegate
Book #10 of 2022: The Proposal by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #35) This is ghostwriter Jeffrey Zeuhlke’s second and final contribution to the Animorphs series, and I must say, I like it a lot less than his previous outing, #25 The Extreme. The best part is the focus on a crisis in narrator Marco’s mental …
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Book Review: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
Book #9 of 2022: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights #2) I was on the fence between a three-star and four-star rating for the first volume of this YA duology, and since I rounded up then, I suppose I’ll go with the lower score for this sequel, which I haven’t enjoyed quite …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 