Marked for Plot

Wynd – A Casual and Delightful Middle Grade Adventure

I picked up the first book in this series as I collected books for a class on Queer Comics and Cartoons. It didn’t end up making the cut as a whole-class read, but it quickly found its way into my classroom library and has become quite popular. While the series isn’t quite finished – final book is releasing this year! – I figured finishing book 4 was enough to write a review about the series more generally. It won’t tickle the fancy of anyone looking for serious or deeply thematic fare, but it’s fun and quick and a truly delightful kids book that I think many adults would enjoy as a casual read.

The Premise:
In a city where being touched by the unnatural wilds marks you for death, young Wynd hides his ears at all costs. However, Pipetown is simmering with tension, and few realize how close the continent is to open warfare. Wynd ends up fleeing with a reluctant prince, a cute gardener, and his adoptive sister, and his adventures put him in contact with several human factions, a bug-faerie culture in the midst of its own political revolution, and a very militaristic society of vampires.

Read if: you love classic fantasy tropes, comics with vibrant illustrations are your style, faeries-as-bugs sounds fun

Avoid if: simplistic morality will bug you, you dislike chosen ones & prophecies, fantasy racism isn’t a worldbuilding trope that works for you

Comparable Media: Fablehaven, Septimus Heap, Cece Rios, Amulet

The Memory of the Ogisi – A Haunting Conclusion to the Forever Desert

I’ve been chewing on the Forever Desert Trilogy since 2023. Books that are interested in the art of storytelling are candy for me, and this trilogy takes a different approach than most. I actually use the first book in the Speculative Fiction course I teach to high schoolers. This series benefits from gaps between each book in the series: the way Utomi plays with history in this trilogy works best when your memory of the past book is a little bit fuzzy. I liked the first two books in this series a lot, but this book is by far my favorite of the three. It’s pretty bleak, and probably not for everyone, but it really worked for me.

For reviews of the first two books in this series, see The Lies of the Ajungo and The Truth of the Aleke

The Premise
In this iteration of the Forever Desert, a minor historian departs from The City of a Thousand Stories in search of the famed Tomb of Osi. His journey brings him into contact with historians from other cities in search of other cities. What he finds causes him to rethink his society’s role in the world, and what he brings back sparks the change that will bring The Forever Desert into its next generation of oppression, control, and violence.

Read if: you’re looking for a blend of folkloric storytelling and epic fantasy, you’re interested in darkly thematic explorations of truth, power, and history

Avoid if: you dislike books that lack hope,you want worldbuilding to feel consistent and explainable

Comparable Titles: 1984, A Conspiracy of Truths, The Giver Quartet

January & February Comic Mini Reviews

It’s been a slow month of comic reading. While I had some fantastic reads in early January (see the mind bending Tongues and the emotive Shadow Life), an awful lot felt fine, but not meaningful enough for me to keep investing in comics as aggressively as I did at the end of 2025. I’ve got a bunch waiting on my bookshelf, and I can see exploring them more deeply once r/fantasy’s bingo challenge resets in April.

The Strength of the Few – An Addictive & Hollow Sequel

The Will of the Many was a bit like fast food. I was unable to put it down, burning through the book in little more than a day. I loved every second of it. Afterwards, I began to notice that the story wasn’t as filling as I thought while reading. I knew I wanted to read the sequel, but I entered with reservations. The Strength of the Few was almost exactly what I thought it would be: fun when little thought was applied, but very difficult to ignore some glaring issues that kept rearing their heads. Will I buy the final installment when it comes out? As with the Pokemon games, my answer is always no. As with Pokemon, I’ll probably break that answer as soon as the book releases and end up disappointed.

While this review doesn’t focus on specific plot points, it will spoil the nature of the twist revealed in the Epilogue of Book 1. This information is also located on the back cover of the book, but I figured I should give a heads up.

The Premise
After going through the gate, Vis is cloned to exist in three worlds. Res (the one we already know), Obiteum (a desert world with not a lot of people, but a lot of necromancy), and Luceum (northern European coded with plenty of druids). He is Synchronous, one of the two to exist in all three worlds at once. He is one of two people who can use the magic of all three realms. And the other? He’s the immortal in charge of the end of the world, and Vis must stop him.

Read if: You want to see Vis keep being awesome in three worlds instead of just one, expansive scope is important to you, there’s even more noble women falling in love with Vis

Avoid if: You were hoping for a political plotline of Vis working from the inside, exploring his moral qualms with Will is important to you

Comparable Titles: Red Rising, The Name of the Wind, Ironbound, Mistborn

Asunder – An Episodic Eldritch Fantasy

I think I’ve taken Asunder off my TBR about three times as I try to keep it at manageable levels. Invariably, I see a review that piques my interest enough for it to go back onto the pile. If I’m honest, the cover art put me off. It’s unfair, I know (don’t judge a book by its cover and all that), but Asunder’s cover is as beautiful as it is misleading. When I opened the pages, I assumed I’d be walking into a well-written romance with a teenage year old lead. Instead I walked through the dreams of dead gods as a 29 year old woman scrabbles to retain her personhood in the face of uncaring worlds. It will make you feel small and wonder and disgust and hopeless. If you’re willing to give it the space to breathe, it will take your breath away.

Elevator Pitch:
Karys is a Deathspeaker. In exchange for the ability to peer through the Veneer to see magic and talk to the recently deceased, she has sold her soul to an eldritch abomination with three faces and a body made of wings. During a job that’s gone horribly wrong, she stumbles across Ferain, an ambassador from her country’s former occupiers, who was attacked while returning home. To save his life and make a massive amount of money, she anchors his soul to her shadow. Getting him out proves to be much more difficult than getting him in, however, and the Saints of the eldritch gods she serves have taken an interest in this man. Her journey forces her into contact with a variety of haunted landscapes, uncaring gods, and ruthless criminals.

Read if: you like eldritch beings who bend reality to their will, episodic horror/fantasy hybrids, you want to feel the weight of selling your soul

Avoid if: you want a quick moving plot or dynamic action scenes, agreeable protagonists, straightforward romantasy

Comparable Media: The City of Stairs, Spirited Away, Wizard of the Pigeons

Kalyna the Soothsayer – Political Fantasy with a Sense of Humor

One of my favorite things to do is read books nobody is talking about other than a few people who relentlessly hype it. Kalyna the Soothsayer was brought to my attention by u/RheingoldRiver over on the Fantasy subreddit. I’m a bit sad that it took me so long to finally pick this book up, but I really enjoyed it! It’s got a good amount of political intrigue, a delightfully unreliable narrator, and a setting that feels just weird enough to be noticed without distracting from the corruptive nature of power or xenophobic social orders. It’s not a comedy, but it’s got a relentlessly dry sense of humor. It isn’t epic fantasy, but the stakes are high. It’s not a crime novel, but our protagonist’s string of cons and lies were entertaining and filled with tension. It doesn’t quite hit my ‘all time favorites’ list, but it’s good enough that I’ve already put in an order for the sequel.

Elevator Pitch
Kalyna is from everywhere, but belongs nowhere. She is powerless in a family of soothsayers. Her ‘prophecies’ rely on guesswork and rigging the odds. She’s catches the attention of the Prince of Rotfelsen, an underground nation. She and her family find themselves kidnapped and forcibly placed in the Prince’s service right when assassination plots against the King are on the rise. She must figure out how to escape without killing herself, her loving father, or her viper of a grandmother. Until then, she’s got to fake some fortunes for a paranoid prince and hope things don’t go too sideways in the meantime.

Read if Looking for: long cons, a bucket of assassination attempts, characters using nontypical weapons, Jewish-coded protagonists, chaotic bisexuals

Avoid if Looking For: kind and sympathetic nobility, fight scenes with consequences, supportive grandparents, long chapters

Comparable Reads: The Justice of Kings, A Mask of Mirrors, The Blacktongue Thief

Ninefox Gambit – Is Novel Worldbuilding Enough? Sadly, no.

I was first (and second) introduced to Yoon Ha Lee through school. His Korean middle grade space opera Dragon Pearl was quite popular for a few years running, and I use some of his short stories from the fairy tale-esque anthology The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales as part of my high school Genre Fiction class. Unfortunately, I didn’t like Ninefox Gambit very much. Lee is a phenomenal worldbuilder who avoids the need to explain every element of the world. In a military-action story however, that choice doesn’t work quite as well. If you’re looking for something weird and trans-coded, this might be for you. Sadly, it wasn’t for me.

The Premise:
Cheris is a commander in the Hexarchate’s military force. She’s got a gifted mind for maths and formation tactics derived from the Hexarchate’s calendar magic. When offered a chance at rapid advancement if she can offer a satisfactory plan to recapture a key military base captured by heretics. Her plan? Host the ghost of a long-dead traitor-general who murdered his entire force of soldiers when alive. He’s even more of a genius than she is, but can she trust his motives and advice to be for the good of her empire?

Read if Looking for: calendar magic, military commanders making tough decisions, sieges, sentient robots building their own culture, creepy shadows with nine eyes

Avoid if Looking for: familiar Space Opera ideas, clear space combat sequences, strong characterization

Queer Books Not About Falling in Love

Valentine’s Day has never particularly interested me. I like anniversaries much more to celebrate a relationship. When I was single it felt stupid and corny, and when partnered I found that anniversaries felt more meaningful. It helps that anniversaries (usually) don’t involve fighting with a bunch of other couples for a restaurant reservation. As I started reading more Fantasy and Science Fiction, I quickly discovered that most books with Queer protagonists tended to focus on romance plotlines, Achillean books even moreso. As an avid Genre-Romance reader, I’m a big fan of love stories, but I also love seeing books about Queer folks living life, tackling evil dictators, and doing grand acts of magic.

This is a list of Queer books I love that don’t feature major romance plotlines. Some of these might feature established relationships, others may have romantic elements that don’t have a traditional happy ending (or are so minor to be unremarked on), or are unconcerned with romantic bonds altogether. You’ll find everything from popcorn action stories to thematically ambitious literature here, so hopefully you find something interesting if you’re looking to scratch your anti-Valentine’s day itch!

Od Magic – Too Many Vibes, Not Enough Substance

Od Magic is an odd book. I should state first that the blurb is an absolute liar and shouldn’t be trusted as an accurate description of the book. You’d think the story was entirely about a gardner at a magic school when, in reality, he’s the most minor of around 5 POV characters. It’s not a book concerned with traditional plot structures, indulges in trope and convention, and tiptoes the line of being a modern fairy tale. I didn’t particularly care for this book, but the people who like it really like it, and I can respect that McKillip wrote something that doesn’t easily fit into a neat category or subgenre.

The Premise:
In the city there is a school at the foot of the King’s palace. In it is a teacher who doesn’t agree with the limits the King puts on the magic they are allowed to teach. It now also holds a new gardener, brimming with untrained magic and recruited by the legendary (and largely absent) Giantess who founded the school. The castle holds a princess who likes to sneak out and isn’t sure about this ‘being engaged’ business. The city holds a quarter-warden who would rather be patrolling the streets and a magician who pretends their spells are nothing but parlor tricks. Each of their orbits connect and diverge, with the central plot (if there is one) focusing on the King’s fear of lacking control of magic and how it affects all our protagonists.

Read if Looking For: vibes based books, grandmas that don’t give a fuck, negligent dads and emotionally distant fiancés, soft magic

Avoid if you Dislike: two-dimensional characters, miscommunication tropes, passive protagonists, a lack of gardening in a book supposedly about gardening

Winter Romance Roundup

I’m almost positive that my yearly romance kick has faded away for the time being. I’ve been settling back into some meatier fantasy/science fiction as I try and clear my shelves to prepare for r/fantasy’s yearly bingo to pick up again and I pivot to reading a lot of gay stuff again (probably including romances). It was a tough winter in Minnesota this year, which explained why I binged so many romances. They’re listed below in approximately the order I enjoyed them.