"Mystery interwined in a pioneering supernatural world. It can easily make a fantastic bestseller."
Recent reader's words
"As I reach the edge of the opening, my blood pressure is rising. Never have I seen something like this before."
Marquise Gertain, THE HIDDEN FACE by M. I. Verras
Read DEFEKT by Nino Cipri if you love big box stores, Corporate America, being overworked, employee handbooks, feeling broken & alone, taking a sick day, special projects, calezones, defective merchandise, found family, finding your super power & "Clair de Lune."
Read IN THE DREAM HOUSE by Carmen Maria Machado if you love haunted houses, gut wrenchingly beautiful prose, autobiographical accounts, trauma narratives, exceedingly queer stories, a meticulous exploration of abuse, thematic echoes & brilliantly structured books.
Read VENOM & VOW by Anna-Marie & Elliott McLemore if you love duel perspectives, enemies-to-lovers, warring kingdoms, secret identities, So Many Knives, badass mobility aids, genderfuckery, T4T romance, magical creatures, living castles, disguises, disability representation, being seen for who you really are.
(Also Vico Ortiz narrates the audiobook & gives an AMAZING performance).
Read THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER by V.E. Schwab if you love old friends, new friends, strong tea, being a hero, rebellions, running away, heists, chronic illness, magic items, sacrifices, festivals, markets, crowded shops, mirrors, f**ked up families & seeing what others do not.
Read A CONJURING OF LIGHT by V.E. Schwab if you love jumping right into the action, invasions, infections, sacrifices, pirate ships, magical markets, sharing pain, the scars left behind, so much blood, betrayals, the terror of love, dungeons, flashbacks & a shit ton of knives.
Read A GATHERING OF SHADOWS by V.E. Schwab if you love magical tournaments, secret identities, political intrigue, lovers' reunions, shared pain, rebirth, masks, pirate ships, learning who you are, dysfunctional families, impossible decisions & body modifications.
My brain is currently a mess (whomst among us is not floundering while the world burns), and you know what that means: COMFORT REREADS. I'm revisiting THE SHADES OF LONDON series by V.E. Schwab before I read THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER.
Read A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC if you love traveling between parallel worlds, interesting magic systems, collecting trinkets, pickpockets, plagues, night markets, masquerades, the river Thames, dive bars, fancy coats, too many knives, lucky kisses, queer dynamics & secrets.
Read STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow if you love houses as characters, small coal towns, familial trauma, bisexuals, dingy motel rooms, creepy childrens' books, searching for home, tattoos, intense longing, terrifying beasts, the neglected & abandoned, and unsettling dreams.
Read SYSTEM COLLAPSE by Martha Wells if you love grumpy murderbots, annoying humans, trauma narratives, corruption corporations, saving those in peril, drones, watching media, using storytelling as both a technique for persuading as well as healing, and fixing the broken bits.
Read BROTHERSONG by TJ Klune if you live complicated family dynamics, the color pink, trauma narratives, heartbeats, tiny cabins in the woods, lonely road trips, ghosts, finding your place in the world, deep-seated guilt, repetition, community support, queer werewolves & breaking cycles.
Reminder for my fellow nature-lovers: please please please go read one (preferably both) of David Abram's books. The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal are both incredible reads that are well worth your time.
Hey @mazeldon@bookstodon@annarbor check out this book by Ann Arbor resident David Nelson, a horror story that explores racism, COVID, and the personal nature of horror.
Read YOUR DRIVER IS WAITING by Priya Guns if you love children of immigrants, rideshare apps, grief narratives, queer lust, organizing spaces, protests, the crushing weight of capitalism, getting swole, chocolate almonds, white girl tears, incendiary emotions, Michael Douglas & overpriced coffee.
Read "YOU JUST NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT": AND 19 OTHER MYTHS ABOUT FAT PEOPLE by Aubrey Gordon if you love discussing complex topics with thoroughness & kindness, the podcast Maintenance Phase, the body positive movement, and dismantling anti-fat bias & other forms of oppression.
Read NIGHT SIDE OF THE RIVER by Jeanette Winterson if you love ghost stories, the horrors & possibilities of the virtual world, oranges, grief narratives, hauntings, the space between lives, the stories we tell, being very cold, soup, the dissolving of time, support ghosts,, theatrics & liminal spaces.
Read WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT by T. Kingfisher if you love remote villages, disreputable cabins in the woods, mysterious illnesses, nightmares, fungi, strongly spiced sausage, trauma narratives, endless cups of tea, propriety, knives & very good horses.
I received an advance copy of this book for review.
Read WALK AMONG US by Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw & Caitlin Starling if you love the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade, novellas, uncertainty, isolation, starting college, twists, Iceland, fraternity, contracts, sustainable farming, overwhelming passions & blood.
Read MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN by Seanan McGuire if you love thrift stores, maple syrup, reunions, mischiefs of magpies, classrooms, nonsense, running as fast as you can, dinosaurs, goblins, beautiful girls, seeking justice, vegetarian food, croquet, crushes, and goodbyes.
For #DecRecs 18, allow me to DecRecommend Ed Yong's book 'An Immense World', which is a fascinating exploration of how animals perceive the world, and what sensory perception is, anyway. I picked it up a year and a half ago, because I LOVED 'I Contain Multitudes' and respect Yong's work as a scientific journalist enormously. But I've never cracked it until now, and I don't even regret delaying, because now it means I get to enjoy his work over this break!
Read LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND by Seanan McGuire if you love trauma narratives, grief, the uncertainty of childhood being exploited, magpies, lost things, found spaces, running away, the moment everything changes, teeth, journals & the addiction of novelty.
Read ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS by Seanan McGuire if you love horses, centaurs, satyrs, fauns, minotaurs, kelpies, unicorns & all manner of hoofed creatures; secrets, expectations, destinies, best friends, found family, ridiculously soft denim, breaking cycles & going to the fair.