Mental Health – Marked for Plot

Green Fuse Burning – Introspective Horror

I’ve always enjoyed objects as a frame through which stories are told. The Empress of Salt and Fortune comes to mind, which leverages museum-style artifacts and descriptions through which a story is told. Green Fuse Burning takes a different route: paintings! This is an unabashedly queer indigenous horror that feels multidimensional and more thoughtful than genre fiction normally goes for. It’s the type of book that has a very specific audience in mind, but for whom this book is likely perfection.

The Premise:
When Rita’s girlfriend goes behind her back to get Rita an artist residency in the town her father grew up in, Rita isn’t sure it’s a good idea. The isolation and unfriendly locals light the coal of creativity, however, along with the lingering trauma that haunts her life. This story is told through the lens of the six mixed-media landscapes she paints during her residency, which trace a dark path through her mind.

Read if You Like: books about mental health and suicidal ideation, mushroom horror, internal monologue getting the spotlight

Avoid if You Dislike: racist small town residents, stories where ‘nothing happens’, bad audiobook narrators

The Absolute Martian Manhunter – Are Psychedelic Visuals Enough?

I’m … well I’m not sure. This comic was pretty widely regarded as one of the best releases in 2025, won a bundle of Eisner awards (mostly for the art of Javier Rodriguez, but it also won Best Limited Series). It felt right that this was my first foray into DC’s new Absolute line. It’s well worth the read for the page count, but I’ll need to finish the series to see if it can stick the landing. What I saw here wasn’t quite enough to cement it into my favorites list.

The Premise:
FBI Agent John Jones has been seeing things, reading minds, and all sorts of other strange phenomenon. As his personal life begins to fall apart, his work is consumed by more and more bizarre crimes. Middletown is beset by synchronized arson, widespread impulsive violence, and people lacing hamburgers with glass. At its heart is the White Martian, who seeks to bring an end to earth. And John hosts the Green Martian, who seeks to protect it.

Read if You Like: experimental art, metaphorical warfare, eldritch investigations, light horror elements

Avoid if You Dislike: cohesive plots, unhealthy marriages, emotionally detached characters

Super Supportive – The SLOWEST of burns …

… and not in a romantic way, either. It’s just slowwwwww and an absolute fucking delight. This is one of the more popular Royal Road stories out there, and it has kept me grounded during the past two months of craziness! This is what I’m staying up at night reading. I dove back in as a distraction, rereading from the beginning, only to decide I was going to keep going … and going … and going. Now that I am caught up with this serial, here’s my sales pitch.

The Premise:
Alien wizards have made a contract with Earth: we give you superpowers in exchange for being able to summon (and generously pay) said superhumans for various services, including hunting demons, cooking a formal meal, or dressing up as a mythological figure and serving cocktails. Anyways, Alden thorn is a kid whose parents were killed by a supervillain. So when he’s chosen, he wants to be a support hero focused on preventing collateral damage.

Read if You Like: slow burns, intense platonic friendships, lovable characters, explorations of mental health, light Video Game elements

Avoid if You Dislike: a single day to span several dozen chapters, tonal shifts between intense existential dread and lighthearted action slice-of-life

The Halls of the Dead – The Dirty Side of Necromancy

It’s no secret to those who’ve been in my orbit for a while that How to Survive this Fairytale is one of my absolute favorite books. So, when Hallow dropped her next book, I knew I was going to have to pick it up. Halls of the Dead is a very different reading experience, and I didn’t jive with it quite as much. However, the through-lines between these two books (relentlessly queer, unconventional takes on common tropes, and unusual structural choices) is something I’m very interested in, so Hallow remains on my list of authors whose release schedule I will be avidly following.

The Premise:
Irene is the first necromancer to perform a resurrection since Jesus himself. She brought back her love, Agnes, with the help of her husband John. John is himself ancient, sworn to keep the necromantic arts alive despite not practicing them himself. This story weaves these three characters’ past and present, tangling them together in a desperate knot as they try to secure a future for the necromantic arts. It’s a horror/fantasy hybrid about gore, necromancy, and revenge.

Read if You Like: magic that doesn’t shy away from grime, literal beetles inside your stomach, character-focused stories, getting lost in the language

Avoid if You Dislike: another book in Victorian London, bugs, stories that de-prioritize plot, frequent flashbacks

Yours Celestially – An Offbeat Romance

What an interesting little book this was. What I picked up for a Romance Book Club ended up feeling at once very much like a romance and nothing at all like the romantasy that’s being put out now. I do wish I’d read it at a time when I had more brain power to throw at the book, because I appreciate how this book didn’t neatly fall into any categories of stories in my mind. Come for the optimistic vibes, stay for conversations that refreshingly don’t feel like they’re from a reality dating show.

The Premise:
In a vaguely utopian future, a company has gotten a handle on reviving you from accidental death (for a small monthly charge). Metatron is the AI who runs Limbo and consoles the souls of those waiting for new bodies. He’s desperately in love with one of his current charges, however. Meanwhile Sasha has a new body, but can’t get a fresh start at a new life because he keeps feeling Metatron’s love pangs as physical sensations in his new body. He decides to take a job at the company to ask Metatron to tone it down, and ideally get his life back on track.

Read if You Like: Romances with parallel couples, characters making up for past mistakes, consistent empathy, casual diversity

Avoid if You Dislike: ambiguous worldbuilding, characters who make mistakes, unconventional romance structures, upbeat portrayals of capitalism

Striker V: In the Meantime

This is a sequel to Striker V: Elements of Change, which I enjoyed as a a great innovation on an enjoyable but played-out superhero formula. This book stays that course, and I think most people will have a similar reaction to both. Technically, this collection could probably be read as a standalone, but Vidmar doesn’t give a ton of backstory/context that would help ground readers. I also thought Elements of Change was the stronger book overall, despite this entry having more consistent high points throughout the book.

The Premise: This collection of stories and novellas follows various characters from the first Striker V book. They range from mundane conversations full of found family to stories with a more traditional superhero action focus.

Read if You Like: the humanity of superhumans, slice-of-life elements, bittersweet resolutions

Avoid if You Dislike: superhero stories, combat to be the primary driver of plot, mediocre combat scenes

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

Novella Readathon #30: We Burned so Bright

I have been super hit or miss with Klune. He’s definitely the biggest gay author in fantasy right now, but I don’t find myself terribly interested in pursuing his backlog. However, since We Burned so Bright is a novella, featured elderly gay protagonists, and got a reputation for being a tonal shift from his normal writing, I figured it would be worth trying out. I still don’t think Klune is going to be a must read author for me, but this settled some hesitations I had about his older work.

The Premise:
The world is ending. A black hole is slowly consuming our solar system, and everyone’s lives are measured in weeks. Don and Rodney are an elderly couple. As the world ends, they buy an RV and set to travel from Maine to Washington. Along the way, they meet all sorts of folks who are facing the end of the world in their own way. At the end of their journey is a piece of their own past that they never completely came to terms with.

Read If You: want to watch the world crumble, enjoy episodic stories, crave elderly protagonists who don’t descend into stereotypes

Avoid If You: are looking for cozy fantasy, salacious gay romance, or saving the world

Novella Readathon #29: Riot Baby

Platonic love is a topic that I’ve been craving more and more of in my reading, especially this month. Riot Baby has been languishing on my shelf for three years, and my craving for sibling bonds explored better than in my previous few reads finally got me to pick it up. I left the story conflicted. What Onyebuchi does well, he does phenomenally. However, I almost liked this story more as vignettes rather than as a cohesive novella.

The Premise:
This book follows siblings Ella and Kev throughout their childhood and early adulthood. Ella has powers akin to Jean Gray (a wide swath of extremely powerful abilities including precognition, destructive telekinesis, astral projection, etc), and Kev is a techie. The book’s main plot comes when Kev goes to jail, warping both his and Ella’s conception of what living in such a world looks like. However, the book doesn’t follow a traditional plot structure (you won’t find overarching antagonists here other than society itself), instead keeping Ella and Kev’s emotional journey as the focal point of the story.

Read If: you want a story about familial – not romantic – love, character centered stories are enjoyable to you

Avoid If: clear plot structures or well-executed speculative elements are important to you

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