SUCCESS!!
Well, dang, I’ve had a lot more luck on this run vis a vis DNFs on this last run, so lets get right to it:
Daughters of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope (Redhook, 6/4)
https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780316378222
Did you learn about historically black drowned towns? I didn’t either. But Leslye Penelope’s novel Daughters of the Merciful Deep has educated me and I’m grateful. In it, Jane Edwards, her family, and the other inhabitants of Awenasa will do anything to save their town from the white men who are planning to build a dam that will cover the town with a lake whether the population stays or goes. Even turn to the old gods, who aren’t anything like their counterparts in the stories.
Daughters is a phenomenal book. The character development is deep, the setting is not only rich but relays an oft forgotten and very important piece of history, the magical system is fascinating, and I always love when authors play with their gods and reshape them to be a little more like monsters. I’m always impressed when writers include history and politics in their novels by making them a seamless part of the stories, which Penelope does masterfully here, not hiding - never hiding - the atrocities done to blacks living in the towns for which they fought and struggled and which whites destroyed without a second thought - but trusting the readers to be affected by the experience in connecting with living, breathing characters like Jane, her father, her sister, and her friends.
If I have a quibble, it’s that the majority of Jane’s supernatural experiences are saved for the last third of the book and it does throw the balance off just a little bit. I would have liked to have seen a little more a little sooner, however, I’ll definitely be recommending Daughters of the Merciful Deep and looking forward to more from Penelope (maybe even more Jane? Please?)
The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim (Penguin Random House, 6/4)
https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780593599662
The God and the Gumihho is one of the most charming books I’ve read in a while and that’s saying something because I am a huge fan of enemies to lovers snark fests and seriously, it’s up against Guardian (https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781638589365) which is the pinnacle of, well, a something to lovers snark fest. I would read The God and the Gumiho a second and possibly a third time, however, and my TBR takes up a lot of space, so take that as the compliment I intend it to be.
I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot because that would spoil your reading experience but the short version is: nine-tailed fox Hani vs. fallen trickster god Seokga, turned supernatural detective, who has to send 20,000 souls to Joseon before he can go home. His brother, the King of Heaven, revises the deal when a creature powerful enough to destroy the human realm gets loose and a specific, notorious, nine-tailed starts up her activities again; catch and kill both and Seokga is free from his previous obligation and can return to Heaven immediately.
Of course Hani is the notorious fox (not a spoiler). And of course she and Seokga fall in love.
This book is witty and delightful and all the good adjectives you can think of. The characters are so much fun and I was legitimately sad when the book ended (oooh, that ending) and my time with them came to a close (there’s going to be more, right? I would really like some more). The story moved at the perfect pace and we get to watch the character develop inside of it which, to my mind, is the best way and, while we do so, we get to learn about Korean mythology (Google got a lot of exercise during the first half of the book).
My really, really unsubtle and not at all nuanced review of The God and the Gumiho is that I absolutely loved it. It’s not just one of my top 5 of the year, I think it may have entered my top 10 of ever. And I’ve read a lot of books so you should all go pre-order it now or go to your local on release day and grab a copy.
Fiasco by Constance Fey (Bramble, 6/4)
https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781250330451
Did y’all read Constance Fey’s first book, Calamity (https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781250330413) ? If not, you should do that. I think you can probably read Fiasco without it - there are some reoccurring characters but only one of them plays a major part and he’s generally the hot but silent type and you can pick up the society’s cast system well enough along the way - but Calamity is really fun and if you enjoy space adventure romance then why not read both?
This is another other one where telling you too much will ruin an amazing surprise so I’ll keep it general: another hit for Fey. The adventure adventured to a planet we didn’t see in Calamity with new challenges, new dangers, and new Family bullshit that created serious issues for our intrepid crew which, of course, is great for us because it makes things that much more exciting. There’s kidnapping, bounty hunting, more kidnapping, daring rescues, a lot of swearing, misunderstandings and, um… grown up reconciliation.
Fiasco is another book with the perfect amount of snark (are we seeing a pattern in Shiri’s reading) and the dark humor is chefs kiss; there were parts where I was laughing out loud which doesn’t happen much when I’m reading because I’m alone and who’s going to hear me to ask why? I think I might like Cyn as a protagonist even more than I like Temper and the old lady who lives next door… I can only wish I had an elderly aunt like that.
Can’t wait for Uncharted Hearts #3.
In The Hour of Crows by Dana Elmendorf (MIRA, 6/4)
https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9780778310495
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about In the Hour of Crows. I’m not from Appalachia but I’ve read enough about it to know what people get wrong and I had concerns when I started the book that it might be riding on stereotypes of which there are many.
I was glad to be proven wrong.
I appreciate the way Elmendorf wrote about a part of the country many dismiss as backwater, home to a population that’s “backward” and “stupid” because they think differently than those on the coasts and because they’ve been treated poorly by various system (ie healthcare) and so, choose to stay as far away from them as possible. I particularly liked the way in which she painted a picture of a society in which people believed in magic in specific ways that made sense according to what they had observed and what they had experienced in the past. A system that had rules and even its own values and mores. The magic in In the House of Crows was carefully cultivated and not to be thrown around for things like a paper cut or a scrape. It was a serious gift to be used in matters of life and death and to do otherwise was to risk losing said gift. I appreciated that, as in real life (at least according to the books I’ve read on the subject), Weatherly’s magic had consequences, not only for her, but for her family and for those she helped.
This story moved fast and while in some cases, that would be to the book’s detriment, in this one, it ratcheted the tension up to a perfect pitch (one that made it difficult to put the book down), giving it an almost real-time feel. Weatherly’s voice is powerful, and I was definitely rooting for her, even when she did things that were, perhaps, not so savory (we love a rebel here).
Oh, and grandma had it coming.
The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton (Harper Voyager, 6/11)
Alright, I’m about to date myself here, but does anyone else remember that movie Space Camp from 1986 where the kids go to, well Space Camp and accidentally get blasted off on the shuttle? And yes, after I saw that movie, I did go to Space Camp and no, I did not get to go into space.
This is the grown up version with that but with dark matter, another dimension, a dying earth, some pissed off… not aliens but maybe, we’re not sure, and romance. With a hologram but also an actual person.
It took me a minute to get into The Stars too Fondly but full disclosure, that may have been because no one in my family has learned (depiste 47, 14, and 12 years respectively) that when I have a book open and my eyes are upon it, they shouldn’t talk to be unless someone is bleeding (a lot) or something is on fire. I am Loki glaring at Thor through the prison window. There is also a little bit of an info dump but, in fairness, it’s information you need. Once Cleo and co are in space though, I actually said, “Shut the fuck up, I’m reading,” so… (I didn’t really say that but I wanted to).
This is another one I just really loved for a myriad reasons. Cleo and Billie (the hologram/not hologram) are really well developed and deep and while I did anticipate the rest of the Cleo’s crew to be a little more fleshed out, they weren’t the focus so, in the end, it didn’t really matter. I liked that Hamilton included slice of life elements like having enough HRT for a whole mission, enough nutrition filament to print food for fourteen years, and how to have sex with your holographic girlfriend (they should talk to Hayden and Horatio from The Death I Gave Him - https://bookshop.org/a/56337/9781786189981), and how many times one can watch a given incarnation of Star Trek before one wants to throw it out the airlock.
I loved the ways in which Hamilton, and through her, the characters, were in a galactic amount of trouble and still managed to focus on the small things that kept them each together. Because it is the little things, isn’t it? And yet, when it came time to tangle with an interdimensional entity, no problem. We can do that together too.
Found family really is the best.
All of these have my stamp of “you should read it.” Hope next time is at least equally as good!