Reviews – Marked for Plot

Witchmark – Bikes and Murders with a side of Medicine

I’m not sure why Witchmark languished on my shelf for years. I already know that I love Polk’s writing, and Witchmark was on the forefront of queer content from Tor and Orbit releases right as it was starting to become more commercially acceptable for traditional publishers to put out queer books. It was one of 12 books I committed to read in 2026, and I’m glad I did! It sits in a setting I’ve not read much of (World War I adjacent, time period wise, though not set on Earth), but I think I need more bicycles in my fantasy. I don’t think I loved it quite as much as most others, but I had a great time and will be chasing down the sequels for sure.

Read If Looking For: a story set after the war has ended, an oppressive oligarchy that hits a bit too close to home, grounded and messy sibling dynamics

Avoid If Looking For: a mystery where you put the clues together, deep explorations of PTSD, developed romance arcs

Comparable Media: Howl’s Moving Castle, A Marvellous Light, Full Metal Alchemist

Remarkably Bright Creatures – I Get the Hype … I Don’t Share It

This book was pretty far out of my wheelhouse, but it’s relentlessly good press plus my desire to stretch outside my comfort zone – this is so close to being realistic fiction in entirety – got me to pick it up. Octopuses are awesome, so what’s not to love? I left the book pretty torn: I understand why it worked for so many people, and I think if I were a bigger fan of realistic fiction I’d have enjoyed it. As it is, this was a slog to finish, despite really enjoying some significant chunks of the book.

Read If Looking For: heartfelt family stories, lovable old ladies, an octopus smarter than the humans who are stumbling through the plot

Avoid If Looking For: xenofiction to be the focal point, characters to communicate with each other

Comparable Media: A Man called Ove, Shadow Life

The Wolf and His King – Dripping with Intentionality

This book was a match made in heaven for me. Queer yearning? Check. Unconventional and bespoke prose? Check. Thematic depth without being preachy? Check. The Wolf and His King I’ve read in a long time. I didn’t love how they tackled writing the ending, but The Wolf and His King is a book I will be happily shoving into the hands of my friends.

As a note, those looking for a traditional Romantasy story will be disappointed. There are absolutely romantic elements to the tale, but you won’t find the story focusing on Bisclavret and the King’s developing relationship. The book is more interested in each of their personal journeys, despite their mutual affection for each other. Like other books that are sort-of-technically Romances that don’t read like most books in the genre, The Wolf and His King is best viewed as a book that happens to include some romance elements, which I think will help temper some misplaced expectations based on how the book has been pitched.

Read If Looking For: dreamlike prose, characters exploring their own self-doubt, a marriage of theme and structure

Avoid If Looking For: critical examinations of monarchies, fleshed out female characters, leads who are proactive

Comparable Media: Song of Achilles, This is How You Lose the Time War, Spear (by Nicola Griffith)

Monkey Meat – An Anticapitalist Fever Dream

I knew nothing about Monkey Meat other than its title and cover art. I didn’t quite know what to make of a hand crushing a Spam-esque can with a monkey on the front, but I knew I was interested in reading more. Monkey Meat: the First Batch is a zany and dark anthology that I fell in love with. It’s not the most original critique of capitalism I’ve seen, but it’s certainly one of the most engaging. I truly believe that if companies could get God to sign over the rights to people’s souls, they would absolutely do so. My only regret is that it doesn’t seem likely to get a sequel, but I will certainly be chasing down more of Juni Ba’s work in the future.

Read If Looking For: unbridled creativity, unconventional art styles, episodic structures

Avoid If Looking For: consistent worldbuilding, subtlety and nuance, grounded characters

Comparable Media: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Invader Zim, Rick and Morty

The Iron Garden Sutra – Spaceship Gothic

I’ve been feeling like 2026 is going to be a very good year for books featuring queer men. The Iron Garden Sutra is my first of the lot, and I enjoyed it a lot! The book has a bit of a weak opening 100 pages, but once it hit its stride I loved it. Unconventional Gothic settings have been growing more and more on me, and this book did a great job of blending a tense atmosphere with the portrait of a man facing an existential crisis. Kind of feels like a darker, more serious Becky Chambers book. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it sure was for me.

Read If Looking For: haunted spaceships, characters coming to terms with death and mortality, explorations of autonomy and personhood, the crumbling of religious conviction

Avoid If Looking For: flawless prose, logical worldbuilding, characters who can put the pieces of the puzzle together

Comparable Media: A Psalm for the Wild Built, Mexican Gothic, A Botanical Daughter

Interview With The Vampire – A Turning Point in Vampire Stories

Interview with The Vampire has been on my read list for a while. Actually, I’ve been interested in exploring the history of vampires a bit more deeply once I realized that the three original vampire novels (The Vampyre, Carmilla, and Dracula) are all super queer. Interview with the Vampire represented a shift in how modern vampires were written. Rice placed them at the center of the tale instead of as an antagonist to be vanquished. As with its predecessors, it’s also super queer-coded. I think I came into the novel with incorrect assumptions about what this book would be, which led to this being a more disappointing read than I was hoping for. In the end I enjoyed it, but I wish discussion about the book was more accurate to the reading experience.

Read If Looking For: musings on the nature of immortality, immoral protagonists, interesting monologues

Avoid If Looking For: two gay-coded dads raising their vampiric daughter together, main characters who didn’t own slaves, traditional plot structures

The Gay Who Turned Kaiju – Monstrosity & Internalized Homophobia

I really don’t know what to make of this manga. The Gay Who Turned Kaiju is the type of book where it makes a single really big choice, and how a reader responds to that choice is going to define their experience with the entire book. The story walks a tightrope between important (and uncomfortable) themes and wantonness. I can’t figure out which side it falls on. If protagonists committing sexual assault is a hard no for you, then avoid this one.

Lunar Boy – Isolation and Identity in Middle Grade Comics

Talking about books with kids is one of the best parts of my job. Unlike most adults, they’ll gush about their favorites unabashedly and rip books they disliked to pieces. This means that I get a pretty good pulse on what books are worth a look – though my tastes don’t always line up with the kids. Lunar Boy is one of those books that kept coming up as phenomenal. Since nobody was reading it, I took my classroom copy home to read as a way to kick off my Spring Break. The kids were right; it’s good.

Read If Looking For: immigrant narratives, a focus on inner conflict, familial struggles & triumphs, adorable pen pals

Avoid If Looking For: hard sci fi, adult fiction (this is very middle grade, with all the tropes and idiosyncrasies that come with that label), books that ask difficult questions

Comparable Media: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, A Song for You & I, Root Magic

The Fall of Kings – Political Intrigue in Medieval Academia

I finally got around to reading the third – and final – novel in the Riverside series. While it is a sequel, they can really be read in any order or can stand alone just fine. In this entry, we trade swordplay for academic debate. Other than the shift from sword to pen however, the structural DNA of The Fall of Kings fits with its predecessors. Expect gorgeous prose, political intrigue, problematic queer leads, and lots of guys cheating on their wives.

Read If Looking For: the cluttered posturing of university professors, morally and emotionally dubious characters, slow pacing, the importance of idle gossip

Avoid If Looking For: fleshed out female characters, the swordfights of earlier Riverside books, a book where you understand how the magic works

Comparable Media: Greenwode, The Goblin Emperor, Downton Abbey

An Inexplicable Act of Doom – Percy Jackson, but Make it Gay

I grew up loving Greek Mythology and imagining that half the characters in the books I read were actually gay. I would have loved An Inexplicable Act of Doom, and wish more books like this had been published when I was a kid. While written with kids in mind, I think adults looking for a more low-key reading experience will enjoy it a lot as well. Plus who doesn’t love a sweet romance between a god of your inevitable and unexpected doom with a guy who’s supposed to perish horribly while flying through the air on mechanical wings?

Read if Looking For: harmless bickering, Greek Gods as narcissistic assholes, cozy adventures, witch Aunties who give great advice

Avoid if Looking For: typo-free books, positive depictions of Theseus, nuanced or complex themes & characters

Disclosure: I was asked to be an ARC reader for this book in exchange for an honest review, though I think this was closer to a final Beta-Read than a true ARC. I did also request that Cavehill would donate a single copy of the physical book to my classroom library for my students to read. I think they’ll quite enjoy it.