Reviews – Marked for Plot

Private Eye – Memes in a Post-Internet Noir

I picked up Private Eye as a text for the Queer Comics elective that I get to teach when student interest is high enough. While there are plenty of breakout hits in that space, I also force students to expose themselves to a broad variety of stories for our independent exploration units. This was one of the few queer noir comics I’d heard about. It was fun and irreverent, great for helping me manage stress at the start of the school year – probably a running theme in my reviews in the next month or so. Unfortunately, and unfairly, I kept comparing this to Watchmen, and it just isn’t on the same level as the greats in the comic space.

The Premise: a private investigator in a world where masks and pseudonyms are part of everyday life sees his most recent client brutally murdered. Now, the target is on his back as both a suspect of her death and as a mysterious criminal seeks to tie up loose ends.

Read if You Like: weird imaginings of humanity’s future, dynamic characterization (in writing and art), stories that push a little bit on the edges of absurdity

Avoid if You Dislike: classic noir structures, books without a ton of thematic heft, ambiguous endings

George Falls Through Time – Being Polarizing is a Good Thing

When I was browsing new releases in January, I passed over George Falls Through Time; admittedly this was mostly because the publisher dropped Ministry of Time as a comp title. I despised … pretty much everything about that book, and it’s gotten worse with time. Thankfully, this got put back on my radar via being pitched to me as an ‘interior existential fuckshit novel’ which is right up my alley. It’s the type of controversial book that is executed well enough to cater to very specific tastes, meaning that most people who picked this up hated it. Honestly, this is likely going this year’s biggest gap (other than DNFs) between my rating of a book and the general consensus.

And honestly, I blame the marketing. It’s pitched as “A confessional queer romance, a swords-and-sorcery soap opera” … which is missing everything this book is trying to do. It is a glorious train wreck in slow motion. This is not a fun book full of whimsy and romance with a historical serf trying to find his freedom (well, there is that, but not like you’re thinking). Instead, this book is the hollowness that comes when when you fixate on the pointlessness of life, the artificiality of all human connection, and the lack of agency over your own destiny. It is cyclical and frustrating and uncomfortably real.

No matter how conflicted (in a good way) I feel about this book, the sign that this review is looking to be one of my longest is a sign that this novel had lots of interesting things to say.

The Premise:
George has lost his job, his boyfriend left him, he has no sense of meaning in life, and now walks dogs. When two run away and things spiral out of control, he ends up falling into 1300s England. Honestly, this was probably the best thing that could have possibly happened. There’s some business with a dragon, but the book is really about George’s internal journey to find meaning in life.

Read if You Like: intense depictions of depression, speculative fiction character studies, the power of a quiet life, simple vocabulary arranged intentionally

Avoid if You Dislike: time travel light on historical detail, books that de-emphasize traditional plot structures, characters (and romances) that are hard to cheer for

My Favorite Magic Schools

It is officially back to school time! Here in Minnesota, we start in September because our State Fair is such a big driver of community competition (in rural areas) and employment for teens (in the cities) that it runs our calendar. This was my second day back with staff, and I can’t wait to meet my new students next week!

In honor of that, here are my favorite (mostly magical) school settings! I was a Harry Potter kid, and while my love of that particular series has withered, I have a long fondness for school settings, including those featuring teacher protagonists!

For Real – An Antitrope Romance

For Real has been sitting on my TBR for a while. Actually, Hall’s Spires series (contemporary romance where each focuses on a different couple) has appealed to me since I found Waiting for the Flood to be an interesting Romance that … well that wasn’t a copy/paste of something else out there. The whole series tackles some more serious and unusual takes on romance genre conventions, but ultimately still very much still feel like Genre Romance. For Real isn’t making my list of favorite romances, but it was well-worth the weirdly large amount of time it took for me to hunt a copy down.

The Premise:
Laurie is a trauma doctor who still isn’t over a relationship that ended 6 years ago. On a whim, he takes 19 year old Toby home from a BDSM club, as Toby is clearly very new to being a dom. Unfortunately, Laurie is emotionally unavailable which leads to him fucking up pretty much everything other than the sex.

Read if You Like: relentless trope subversion, quality queer romances, not every conversation focusing on falling in love

Avoid if You Dislike: light to moderate BDSM elements, protagonists who don’t look like marble statues, characters who are kind of shitty but are working on it

Demigod 12 – Romeo and Juliet, but via Intergalactic Eurovision

Earlier this year, I fell in love with the slice of life Intergalactic Idol boot camp that was Divinity 36. With my push to actually continue reading the series that I’ve been enjoying – instead of leaving everything abandoned at book 1 – I picked up this audiobook for some long car rides to and from a cabin weekend. While it didn’t quite have the magic of Divinity 36, I had a great time with it and will totally and definitely finish the series this year … probably … assuming I don’t get distracted.

The Premise:
This book picks up with Phex and company going on tour as the opener for Tillum, the universe’s most popular Pantheon. Phex needs to balance the needs of both Pantheons with his growing feelings for superstar Missit, in a job where romantic and physical love are forbidden.

Read if You Like: the dangers of parasocial relationships, angst and yearning, the lack of agency in idol culture

Avoid if You Dislike: ‘how could he possibly love me’, protagonists without real flaws, grumpy/sunshine pairings

A Trade of Blood – Has the Magic Worn Thin?

I am remarkably behind on reading a lot of the hot new releases that have been coming out in 2026. Even ones I’ve been salivating for, like the new SM Hallow book that I have been promised gruesome necromancy, has been put on the backburner. But the Ana and Din series is one that my friends have all been reading too, so it got shunted to the front of the pile. This book brought me all sorts of fun ideas for my current tabletop role playing group – where my players are building up a cult to a god of mushrooms – but this was by far the most disappointing of the three. I’m not mad I read it, and it was an enjoyable time. However, I found myself wishing I’d picked up a different new release instead.

Because these are self-contained murder mysteries, you can probably read them in any order with minimal confusion. However, The Tainted Cup is not only the first in the series, but also the best in my opinion. It also provides the clearest on-boarding to the setting. This review will have some spoilers for early plot points (mostly the method of killing), so read on at your risk.

The Premise:
Ana and Din travel to farming country after the daughter and scion of the richest farming family turns up dead, with the likely culprit being the heir to their rivals, who control the great cattle herds of the Empire. As usual, all is not as it seems, and the killing method is far from typical.

Read if Looking For: murder mysteries, creepy mushrooms, ill-advised affairs

Avoid if Looking For: a serious critique of exploitative agriculture, truly weird worldbuilding

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos

It’s pretty common for me to start stepping back into comics and graphic novels as school begins to ramp up. As I start exercising my work brain, comics allow me space to breathe as I handle the transition. This isn’t going to win any awards, but its a delightful queer superhero romp that I’m going to continue, and that my students will love! I especially appreciate its use of allegory and bringing modern plot structures to the superhero genre.

The Premise:
Christopher Chaos has always been different. He can see equations flitting through the world, and has all the makings of a mad scientist. However, when a werewolf classmate gets murdered by ghostly pale figures, he realizes that he’s not the only monster around. He and two other students connected with the deceased also find targets on their backs, they must learn to run away or fight back.

Read if Looking For: superhero tropes, monstrosity as queer allegory, a zombie-pigeon animal companion, corrupt cops

Avoid if Looking For: boundary-pushing stories or art, nuanced and complex villains, realistically violent fight scenes

Mage Errant – A Concussion Victim’s Dream!

August has ben so much fun! I have finally been blessed to join the concussion club and had a string of days where reading visually was simply not an option. It’s been two weeks at this point, and while my stamina is on the low end, it seems like I got the best possible version of a concussion possible. Hopefully this is the last time I feel compelled to reference it (outside of my August wrap-up). Mage Errant ended up being my audiobook series of choice, and I had a lot of time with a sleep mask over my eyes floating in and out of consciousness, especially for books 1-3. Thankfully, this is a reread for me, so I never felt particularly lost or confused. That said, the things that are popping up for me in this review are much more heavily weighted on the back half of the series – which is generally the better half anyways.

This will have some light spoiler elements for the first book in the series, but nothing specific or consequential.

Read if You Like: creative applications of magic, school settings, battles that span hundreds of pages, ensemble casts with plenty of queerness, morally complex (corrupt?) mentor figures

Avoid if You Dislike: prose that could use a line edit, characters leveraging ‘story logic’, critiques of imperialism, tonal shifts across the series from YA to Adult (no sex)

The Language of Liars – Award-Worthy in all the Right Ways

This book has all of the elements that typically appeal to me: it’s a novella, engages with questions of linguistics and ethics, and it asks the reader to be uncomfortable. The Language of Liars blew me out of the water. The opening sections left me with the feeling that this would be a good book, worth reading and recommending, but it got better and better. Every chapter sucked me in a little bit more until I sat in bed, story finished, thinking about the ending and its implications. I was not super enthralled by the 2025 novella nominations from most major awards. The Language of Liars has the right blend of thematic ambition, accessible writing, and the backing of a traditional publisher that make it an excellent candidate, and I will be happily advocating for it to make some waves on the awards circuit this year. To anyone who likes their stories to shine a mirror on our world without being too obvious about it, this is for you. There’s enough here for me to happily teach this novella in my Genre Fiction elective, and I’m desperately hoping one of the book clubs I participate in picks it up, because there’s so much to talk about from the last few chapters.

Really, truly an excellent piece of writing. Plus, the book is short and straightforward enough that the content-to-time-investment ratio is one of the best I’ve read this year.

The Premise:
Ro is a talented linguist, hoping to be the first in generations of his species to jump into another’s body. He succeeds, possessing a Star Eater who, like all of their race, mine the cosmic space dust necessary for faster than light travel. He has been trained for this moment, hoping to gather the information and skills needed to save the slow death of the universe’s society, which depends on the service (exploitation?) of the enigmatic aliens.

Read if You Like: autism-coded characters, uncomfortable questions about how you (the reader) live life, musings on linguistics

Avoid if You Dislike: straightforward prose, lack of clear solutions to problems, monolithic intergalactic governments

The Dawnhounds – Fungal Cities & Fascism

The Dawnhounds was the Beyond Binaries Book club pick over on r/fantasy. We had our midway discussion last week and will be wrapping it up on August 27th! This is a book that feels extremely ahead of its time, and fans of Perdido Street Station are going to enjoy it greatly. It’s the type of unapologetically political Fantasy that has been getting more and more traction, but this was written in 2019. I left feeling mixed about this book overall, but I got my concussion right around the halfway point, which definitely is when I started enjoying the book less. For those whom are drawn to the weird worldbuilding and ardently political themes, I think it brings a lot to the table.

The Premise:
Yat is a police officer in a city that has adopted biotechnology to replace the steel and iron of its former oppressors. She tries to do right by the city, but as a queer woman, she gets little respect from other officers. After she is murdered and comes back to life with the blessing of some eldritch power, she gets wrapped up in a conspiracy far bigger than she can imagine. Her path takes her to a pirate crew that has answers about what happened to her, and a realization about the system she worked inside.

Read if You Like: vaguely indescribable interludes, weird cities, characters having a crisis of faith, insect bullets

Avoid if You Dislike: spores, negative depictions of police, the power of LOVE, authors refusing to explain everything