Book #4 of 2019: Archenemies by Marissa Meyer (Renegades #2) I like this superhero spy sequel much more than its predecessor, but I’m still struggling with some of the basic concepts of this series. Nova’s hatred of the Renegades — which continues to be a bizarre name for an official government peacekeeping force — has …
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Book #251 of 2018: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Princess Academy #1) Situated right on the boundary between middle-grade and young adult fiction, this little book is pretty delightful. It’s more grounded — and more feminist — than the fairy tale it at first resembles, and is filled with strong female friendships and the struggles …
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Book #249 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #7) And so my Harry Potter reread comes to an end with what I consider the weakest volume of the series (not counting oddities like the Cursed Child screenplay or the flimsy textbook tie-ins). The major problem in this …
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Book #248 of 2018: The Book of Magic edited by Gardner Dozois Gardner Dozois was a prolific editor of speculative fiction, and this is most likely his final project, having come to publication soon after his death in 2018. It’s a series of stories about sorcery — the companion to last year’s Dozois fantasy collection …
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Book #244 of 2018: How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin A few of these short stories miss the mark for me, and the ones I like best seem front-loaded in the first half of the collection, giving the book at large an uneven feel. Still, author N. K. Jemisin’s imagination is …
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Book #241 of 2018: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings #1) Overall, I adore this historical fiction novel about queer teens on their grand tour of eighteenth-century continental Europe. It’s phenomenal representation in a genre that often starves for any diversity at all, and the action of the story …
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Book #236 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #6) I love plenty of individual moments in this penultimate Harry Potter book, but if I’m being truly objective, its flashback-heavy narrative arc is a bit of a step down for the series. As usual author J. K. Rowling …
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Book #231 of 2018: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White After a little bit of a bumpy start, this Frankenstein retelling quickly settles into itself and by the end proves nearly as remarkable as the Mary Shelley classic. Author Kiersten White’s primary inspiration is to present the familiar horror narrative from the …
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Book #230 of 2018: The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain #3) This third novel in author Lloyd Alexander’s fantasy version of mythical Wales is a bit of a step down from the first two volumes, reducing the sole female hero from a fellow adventurer to a passive macguffin for the …
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Book #222 of 2018: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #5) The Harry Potter books are well-known for getting darker and deeper as they go along, aging up in target audience along with their main characters, but the hero’s surly teenage angst in this novel actually bothered …
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