Author of Color – Marked for Plot

Novella Readathon #21: The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain

Sofia Samatar has been on my reading list for a long time. I always figured I’d start with The Winged Histories, but this novella kept getting rave reviews, and I love a school/academia setting. I knew this story dealt with class displacement from the chatter, but I wasn’t prepared for how sharply Samatar wields the pen … or perhaps keyboard. This is yet another author that I have now committed to reading more of; I wanted this project to lessen my TBR, but it has in fact done the exact opposite.

The Premise
The Fleet travels from mining site to mining site, remaining for generations before making a long journey to a new source of resources. The boy is one of the Chained, laboring in the darkness beneath, and the professor is one of the ankleted, a sort of middle working class. Some of her friends don’t bear any fetters at all. The professor brings the boy out of the darkness, ‘liberating’ him to her class and installing him as a student at her university. It does not go as smoothly as she’d like. As the two grapple with the chains they bear, they both realize they have much more to learn.

Read If Looking For: thematically dense stories, nuanced yet archetypical characters, the pointlessness of meetings and committees

Avoid If Looking For: plot heavy books, tidy endings, school settings featuring classroom scenes, happy vibes

Novella Readathon #19: Cabaret in Flames

Last year one of my favorite reads was Pueyo’s debut novel But Not Too Bold, which was a delightfully gothic monster romance – with an emphasis on monster. Cabaret in Flames was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and I’m mostly disappointed in it. As with some of my other three star novella reviews, I still think it’s worth a look for readers who are excited about the specific premise and tone of Cabaret in Flames, but not for a more general audience.

Elevator Pitch:
Ariadne is a doctor, and her patients are Guls, creatures with unnaturally long lives who can feed only on human flesh and blood. When a strang Gul comes looking for her 5-years vanished mentor, she is forced to confront her dark past that Erik saved her from. This Gul, Quaint, wants to find Erik and asks for Ariadne’s help as they travel to a Rio De Janerio club that serves Guls almost exclusively.

Read If Looking For: characters processing intense childhood sexual trauma, monster romance, stories unable to be separated from their setting (Brazil, in this case)

Avoid If You Dislike: why the fuck won’t you two just talk to each other!, uninspired prose

Novella Readathon #18: The Iron Below Remembers

Every year there’s a book. A book that blows my mind and makes me want to scream from the rooftops how much I love it. Typically, this book is a little more niche, with choices that keep the story from appealing to the broad audience needed for breakout hits. I’ve championed Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares and How to Survive this Fairytale by SM Hallow, and now its time for me to tackle The Iron Below Remembers. This book examines how history gets layered and built, revels in queer sexuality, and uses a superhero framework to focus on the intensely personal. Characterization is consistent and exciting, and our characters aren’t stand-ins for the reader’s hopes and dreams. It’s kind of a perfect mix for me, though there are a few elements that I think will put off the general reader. Certainly it’s a strong contender for book of the year (the only current competition is The God Eaters by Jessee Hajicek). I’m mostly just disappointed I didn’t pick it up sooner.

Elevator Pitch:
Professor Yadav’s specialty is ancient history, specifically the Karthik Empire, a South Asian colonizing force whose lasting impact is comparable to our world’s British Empire. His boyfriend is Ezra/Savior, a beloved superhero with golden retriever energy. When one of Savior’s battles uncovers a pristine artifact of sorcery – whose use and knowledge has been lost to time – Yadav’s connections see him as one of the primary researchers studying it. As his academic star rises, relationship dynamics shift. Woven through their journey are Yadav’s academic musings on the Karthik Empire.

Read If You Like: superhero settings from the perspective of a normie, fictional academia, relationships as something requiring work and investment

Avoid If You Dislike: abundant talk about sex (but very little actual sex happening), anecdotes that don’t connect with the main plot, footnotes, superhero settings without many superhero plot beats

Novella Readathon #12: A Necessary Chaos

I have not yet read a proper Romance for this project, though plenty of the novellas feature romantic subplots. A Necessary Chaos entered my TBR when it was described as ‘Mr. and Ms. Smith, but Fantasy and Gay.’ This pitch combines three of my favorite things – I don’t know why I love that movie so much, sue me – and I hoped it would be a nice tonal change after The Lathe of Heaven. The two had a pretty stark contrast; as A Necessary Chaos is, quite frankly, a bit of a mess. It was a mess that worked for me however, because it was so tailored to the things that I enjoy. As it stands though, I can only recommend this for people for whom the premise is immediately exciting.

The Premise:
Vade is a Whisper, a member of the Empire’s magical secret police, seeking revenge on the rebels who killed his sister. Althus is an anarchist in the Phantom Dragon, hoping to bring the system crashing down. The two have been lovers for years, meeting up to spy on each other. Just as they start thinking that their feelings are too serious for a fake relationship, however, they each receive the needed push to finally commit to killing the other. Perhaps them being honest with each other about who they are was the key to unlocking a true relationship all along, and it will bring an Empire to its knees.

Read If You Like: steamy action romance, cool magic powers, torture demons, love was the real magic all along

Avoid If You Dislike: unredeemably evil villains, abrupt changes in allegiance, typos

Novella Readathon #9: Psychopomp and Circumstance

Eden Royce has one of my favorite Middle Grade books of all time (shout out to Root Magic!), and I’d been excited to pick up one of her adult works. Unfortunately, I didn’t find Psychopomp and Circumstance nearly as compelling as I hoped. There are a lot of individual pieces that worked, and certainly it’s exploring an uncommon time period for genre fiction (The Reconstruction Era of the US). There’s enough appeal here for me to recommend it when relevant, but not enough that I’ll be launching any campaigns for other people to pick it up for more general recommendation requests.

The Premise:
Phee is 21, navigating a mother trying to marry her off and a father who doesn’t trust her with any real work at the distillery. When she learns of her Aunt passing away, she agrees to Pomp for her Homecoming. Aunt Cleo was cast out from the family at her own mother’s Homecoming. Phee has fond memories of her, and she kept up a correspondence with Cleo despite her mother’s wishes for distance. Grieving and regretting her choice not to spend more time with he Aunt, Phee visits the odd community her Aunt founded, a home that isn’t hers, and the knowledge that she needs to prepare a proper send-off to honor her Aunt Cleo’s memory and spirit.

Read If Looking For: Historical Fantasy with Gaslamp aesthetics, the fog of light amnesia after a nap, doors without handles, themes of family and community

Avoid If Looking For: good parents, focused narratives

Comparable Media: Witchmark, The Gilded Age (Peggy only)

Novella Readathon #5: If Found Return to Hell

I didn’t know a ton about If Found Return to Hell coming into the first page, but I had assumed it would be a fairly standard horror story featuring a possession. Look at the cover! It’s actually a lot more like Penric’s Demon, though a bit goofier: this book is a big marshmallow with a gooey center. It finds a better balance in tone than a lot of cozy fantasy does, however, which made me like it a lot more than one of the many Legends and Lattes clones. However, I was kind of hoping this would be a nice accompaniment to The Haunting of Hill House, which my partner forced me to watch (though I’m now largely a fan). The second book of this readathon to underdeliver horror yet provide great cozy vibes, which is odd considering this is only the fifth book I’ve read for the challenge.

The Premise:
Wen works for One Wizard, a megacorporation to solve all of your wizarding needs! Unfortunately, they mostly answer phones, listen to complaints, and transfer customers to other departments. When a young man calls in with a massive sigil on his wall and no memories of what happens, Wen gets clearance to investigate. Soon, they end up playing host to a man possessed by a Prince of Hell, and Wen doesn’t know what to do about that.

Read If You Like: found family, late stage capitalism + magic, cozy fantasy that doesn’t overplay itself, developed platonic relationships

Avoid If You Dislike: second person narration, asshole parents, stories with relatively low stake

Comparable Media: House on the Cerulean Sea, Penric’s Demon

Novella Readathon #4: A Taste of Honey

There’s a special kind of magic when stories commit to telling the story of a person, following them throughout their lives. It was one of the reasons I enjoyed Sign of the Dragon so much last year! A Taste of Honey is a story that asks you to step back from your own life and settle into the skin of another. It asks you to reflect on your life, on your choices, and whether you can stand by the paths you chose not to take. It is a piece of unvarnished reality, even though it occurs in a setting somewhere between the Sparticus and The Expanse. It eschews grand epics in favor of the life of a man, and not a man who had a particularly large impact on his world. It also has cheetahs, and who doesn’t love a big cat?

Note: this is technically part 2 of a duology. My understanding is that both books share a world, but otherwise do not overlap terribly much. I’ve read the first book (several years ago), and didn’t see any connections; certainly my fuzzy memory about Sorcerer of the Wilddeeps was not a hindrance to enjoying this novella.

The Premise
Aqib is the son of The Master of Beasts, and has an affinity for working with animals. He has a chance encounter with a visiting soldier, whose nation’s gods are negotiating with Aqib’s nation’s gods. The two have an immediate spark, despite Aqib’s culture forbidding men from laying with other men. This story interweaves their ten day affair with the days, years, and decades that follow Aqib’s separation from Lucrio. Is the life Aqib gained, a wife and child and comfortable life amongst the high nobility, worth the loss of the love of his life?

Read If Looking For: the joy of young (and forbidden) love, the pride a parent feels in their child, second guessing the choices which form the fulcrum of your life

Avoid If Looking For: clear and conventional worldbuilding, invisible prose, Genre Romance

Comparable Media: Sign of the Dragon, Call me By Your Name, The Empress of Salt and Fortune

Japanese Gothic – Time Travel Behind the Sword Ferns

I knew very quickly that this was a new release I wanted to carve out time for. As much as I don’t love derivative naming conventions, I loved Mexican Gothic and had high hopes for Japanese Gothic. Ironically, they are very different types of Gothic fiction, and I don’t think this book references the style of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s at all. Considering this one is getting a good amount of buzz, I think you can expect to see more [Country] Gothic titles in the future. It’s a shame, because I think Japanese Gothic stands on its own two feet as a really delightful horror story, even if not every element worked for me.

The Premise:
Lee is a college student who fled to Japan after murdering his roommate. His father lives in an old Samurai house with a rotating cast of short-term Japanese girlfriends. Meanwhile, Sen is the son of a disgraced Samurai in the late 1800s, and she desperately wants to live the path of the warrior and live up to her father’s hopes. The world has moved past Samurai, however, and she knows her father’s living breath is a testament to his cowardice, which he takes out on Sen. These two protagonists discover that they can communicate through time. Lee hopes that Sen – obviously a ghost – can give him insight into how he can find the mother who was kidnapped when he was a child. Sen hopes to find details of her family’s fate, for she would do anything to protect them.

Read If You Like: paranormal time travel, historical settings, turtle myths, a creeping sense of unmooring from reality, psychological horror

Avoid If You Dislike: abusive families, unreliable narrators, dead animals, descriptions that feel claustrophobic

Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch

Back in April, I read the first collection of Monkey Meat stories and fell in love. Juni Ba’s art, humor, and themes were catnip for me. The vibes are Sunday Morning cartoons focusing on the dystopian nature of late stage capitalism, with heaping of weirdness thrown into the mix. Overall, I think The Summer Batch is (mostly) a direct upgrade, but the two can really be read in any order. Each story is self-contained, with only a few characters appearing in multiple stories – and never requiring you to have read earlier tales to understand what’s going on. All that’s important is that you’ve returned to Monkey Meat Island! Don’t worry, all we ask for access to the theme park is your immortal soul.

The Premise:
Welcome back to Monkey Meat island! Like last time, there’s a wide variety of stories within this volume. This time however, the book itself is a magazine created by the Monkey Meat corporation, meaning you also get complementary ads. Isn’t that great?

Read if Looking for: the corporation always wins, irreverent humor, in-book recommendations for real-world art, meta-commentary

Avoid if Looking for: optimism or escapism, realistic characters or situations, subtlety

Comparable Media: The Triangle Agency, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Rick and Morty

Call And Response – An Anthology of Duets

Call and Response is a fairly new anthology of short stories by Christopher Caldwell built around a delightful premise: what if each story comes in a pair? In Call, Caldwell introduces characters and worlds, only to return to them in Response. Sometimes these appearances are small cameos, other times they are directs sequels. Call and Response is unapologetically black and queer, with several stories sneaking semi-autobiographical details into the fantastic. This collection won’t satisfy those seeking the tight research of Ted Chiang or the experimental forms of Isabel Kim. However, Caldwell’s stories are candid, intense, and thoughtful. I’d love to see what he can do with a full novel.

Read If Looking For: stories of black resilience and rebellion, diverse representations of queerness, aquatic motifs

Avoid If Looking For: experiments in form or structure, answers to broken systems, unambiguous endings

Comparable Media: Convergence Problems, The Fox Roads, Ivy Angelica Bay