Book #36 of 2019: Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #3) I always worry that these novellas about children who miss their adopted fantasylands are going to get formulaic and stale, but somehow author Seanan McGuire keeps coming up with new variations that I find endlessly enchanting. I’m not sure if this …
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Book #33 of 2019: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (Rebel of the Sands #1) Theoretically, this should be a wildly fresh Young Adult fantasy novel, with a setting that blends Middle-Eastern mythology with a gunslinging western. In practice, however, it leans far more towards the latter influence than the former, and the worldbuilding …
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Book #30 of 2019: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao (Rise of the Empress #2) The first book in this East Asian-inspired fantasy duology remains a fascinating look at a complex antiheroine, but author Julie C. Dao makes the disappointing choice for its sequel to reduce that character to a more conventional …
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Book #28 of 2019: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik This pastoral winter fantasy novel initially seems like it will be a straightforward retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin myth, and I was already drawn in by the idea of setting that story in a medieval Slavic kingdom with a Jewish heroine. As it develops, however, author Naomi …
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Book #25 of 2019: Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (The Tales of Pell #1) This novel aspires to be a tongue-in-cheek fairy tale sendup a la Discworld or Shrek, but it doesn’t have anywhere near the heart or cleverness to pull that off. Instead it reads more like just …
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Book #24 of 2019: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale (Princess Academy #2) Much like the first book, this Princess Academy sequel seems like a great title for readers transitioning between the middle-grade and young adult publishing categories. It’s a tough act to balance the atmosphere of class consciousness and fermenting revolution against a lighter …
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Book #22 of 2019: Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain #4) I like the section near the end of this book when the hero apprentices under a series of artisans who sneakily give him life lessons along with crafting skills, but as a whole it’s a bit too meandering for my tastes. …
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Book #20 of 2019: Circe by Madeline Miller I’m not well-versed enough in Greek mythology to recognize everywhere this novel diverts from the traditional versions of the title character’s story, but it’s nevertheless clear that this presentation of her life on her own terms is something special. Much like Wicked, it’s a feminist reclamation of …
Book #12 of 2019: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Legacy of Orïsha #1) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A small band of commoners discover a secret that could bring down their evil empire and restore the old order, but when their home is attacked, they are forced to flee, …
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Book #8 of 2019: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) I’m pretty underwhelmed by this retelling of Beauty and the Beast by way of Twilight, which somehow captures some of the worst impulses of both those narratives. There’s no real build-up to the heroine’s …
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