NonHuman Lead – Page 3 – Marked for Plot

Tongues

It has taken me much longer to write this review than is normal. It’s tough to figure out how to talk about this book, or why I enjoyed it so much. I found this to be a bit like trying to point out a bird in the forest. The problem lay not with getting a friend to find the bird on the tree, but rather trying to get them looking at the right tree in the first place. Too zoomed in on specifics and a review loses any sense of cohesion, but too zoomed out and you have nothing interesting to say. There’s a lot to say about Tongues. Even when I end up disliking the choices an author makes in stories like this, I appreciate the gradual blurring of lines between Literary Fiction and Genre Fantasy. Thankfully though, I ended up liking Tongues a lot.

The Premise
This is a book that takes a bunch of elements from Greek myth (or, our cultural ideas about Greek Myth smashed into something eldritch and ancient) and fast-forwards the see how they’re interacting with the modern world. Prometheus befriends the Eagle who eats his liver each day. A teenager with a teddy bear on his back wanders through the war-torn landscape of Afghanistan. A girl is tasked by eldritch creatures to kill a god. A mysterious cult is gaining prominence in the region.

Read if Looking For:
– something weird
-something disturbing
– something baroque

Avoid if Looking For:
– something quick
-something sweet
– something simple

Flesh Eater

I didn’t know much about Flesh Eater going into the story other than it involved spiders and a queer male protagonist. I’m not totally sure what I expected, but Zootopia for Adults setting up an Epic Fantasy trilogy wasn’t it. Lots to love here, with a really fantastic take on an everyman protagonist. However, it’s not quite as dark as the title and cover might lead you to believe.

Elevator Pitch:
Coal is a fox with very distinctive markings. This is unfortunate considering he is a criminal. Once a librarian, he has been branded a Flesh Eater for consuming his father’s flesh. As he desperately tries to make enough money to clear his record, Coal ends up involved with the underbelly of society. He’s scrambling to get by, to survive the Emperor’s bounty hunters, and to make money any way he can. Unfortunately, life as a librarian didn’t prepare him for any of this.

Read if Looking For: extended spider-riding scenes, a normal person who acts (mostly) like a normal person would, animal societies, organized crime

Avoid if Looking For: Overpowered protagonists, clear villains, medieval tech levels, lots of magic

A Rune in the Rubble

One of my goals in 2025 was to read more truly unknown books. Some of my favorite reads have been nearly unknown, and popularity is no indicator of quality. Steven Cavehill’s pitch for his book on r/queersff caught my eye, and I mentally bookmarked it for when I started one of my kindle binges. It’s got some classic high fantasy and dystopia elements, and was a fun read. I’ll definitely pick up the sequel, but I also hope that Cavehill goes through a final round of line-edits on his writing next time around.

The Premise:
Rhys is a city guard relegated to paperwork, much to the disappointment of his noble family. He’s dating the mildly possessive leader of the demon-hunter Rangers, an organization he’s working to join. Ambrose is a half-elf thief desperately trying to buy a better life for his younger brother. The two are on a collision course when Ambrose robs a noble runesmith, accidentally causing the house to burn down and starting a manhunt for him. A manhunt Rune is placed in charge of.

Read if Looking For: asshole families, always another secret, tropey fantasy characters, overly-dependent relationships, notices at the start and end of sex scenes

Avoid if Looking For: polished writing, characters who see the plot coming at them, books free from fantasy racism (elves)

Thirsty Mermaids

Kat Leyh is a pretty huge name in middle grade comics. To my knowledge, Thirsty Mermaids is her first take on an adult story, and I found it a roaring success. The type of book I finished in a single day because I kept telling myself ‘just one more page’. Sometimes graphic novels can really push you to slow down and grapple with difficult ideas, but other times you just want a fun romp of a mermaid cracking leg jokes as she tries to figure out how they work. This book was perfect for a lazy Saturday, though I sort of wish I’d read it in the middle of summer while at the beach.

The Premise
When Pearl, Tooth, and Eez drunkenly decide to try out being humans, they don’t have a plan on how to turn back. They find themselves stranded on land without an understanding of money, housing, or how to walk without stumbling. They’re taken in by a generous bartender, and each faces their own struggles as the trio try to find their way back home. This book is silly, emotional, and vibrant.

Read if Looking For: heartfelt and cartoonish adult comics, found family vibes, eldritch ocean aunties, casual queer representation

Avoid if Looking For: dense or ambitious graphic novels, innovative take on mermaids

City of Strife

The City of Spires has been on my radar for a while as a great example of what ambitious queer representation can look like. It’s also gotten nods as the modern inheritor to Swordspoint, the seminal Fantasy of Manners book with pioneering queer rep in the 80s. I ended up not loving the book, but I see the appeal and am intrigued to continue at some point in the future. But if you’re looking for a queer ensemble cast, I can’t think of something better than this.

The Premise
Isandor is a city with class problems. The rich live (quite literally) above everyone, in towers connected by bridges, holding them above the world. The poor are at the whims of the games of the noble houses. And the city plays host to an embassy of an Empire intent on conquering the world. Many different characters lives intersect in this book, connecting apprentice mages with shelter owners with idealistic nobility. Each character’s agendas and concerns are different, but this book lights the match that will set the city ablaze (quite literally). There’s enough going on that focusing on any single plotline will do a disservice to describing what the book is about.

Read if Looking For: many queer identities in one book, ethically upright protagonists, sadistic villains, impassioned monologues

Avoid if Looking For: deep characterization, flashy magic, political maneuvering

Frontera

This is a book that’s been in my classroom library for a while. It hasn’t been super popular unfortunately, likely because it looks a little to realistic for kids who are browsing in the fantasy section of my library. When a kid had rave reviews for it, however, it was easy to give it a try. Frontera is a quick and emotional read. Immigration is a topic that affects pretty much any country in the world, but Frontera’s relevance is strongest to those living in Mexico and the US. At a brisk 240 pages, it won’t take too much of your time either!

The Premise:
Mateo lived in America his whole life before being deported his Junior Year in high school. He and his parents make the choice to have him make the crossing back into the US to live with his grandmother. On the perilous journey, he encounters Guillermo, a ghost of a man who died during the same crossing many decades ago. Guillermo now helps others cross the border as he refuses to come to terms with his own history. However, perhaps the two can help each other more than either is willing to admit.

Read if Looking For: immigrant narratives, heartfelt characters, badass cats, angsty teens that feel realistic

Avoid if Looking For: tightly plotted stories, lots of speculative elements, romance storylines

Regicide: Saints of Firnus

Every once in a while a book recommendation passes beneath your nose that captures your attention. Regicide was that way. It started with a compelling cover, a blurb that promised grimdark fantasy elements, and a lack of clear romance plotline. It lived up to some of those promises and had some legitimately interesting developments, but was undercut by a dire need for another readthrough and round of proofing and edits.

The Premise:
This is the story of Holt, a member of the ‘vermin’ beastkin whose lands were colonized by the Panthera. He now lives as a beggar, supported only by his partner, whose untimely death pushes Holt. towards new connections with the underground resistance and old traditions of his people. However, this is Holt’s story told after he’s become an infamous legend. An elder shares the ‘real’ story of Holt to others of his kind. They live underground, still firmly under the paw of the Pantheran government, meaning you know from the very beginning that the ending of the story wouldn’t be a happy one.

Read if Looking for: Redwall for adults, morally upright protagonists in dystopian worlds, author-created illustrations, characters who happen to be gay

Avoid if You are Looking for: polished prose, multi-POV stories, deep themes or nuance, romance, books without depictions of intense racism, lots of magic

Fables: Volumes 1-3

After trying to hype How to Survive This Fairytale everywhere I could, I got recommended the Fables comics as another take on a dark fairy-tale mashup story. Sort of like if the TV show Once Upon a Time had been produced by HBO instead of Disney, which I think is a pretty good comparison point. This review covers the first three volumes ( Legends in Exile, Animal Farm, and Storybook Love). I’ll definitely be reading more of this, but I didn’t love it so much that I’m putting the rest of my backlog on hold to keep pursuing it.

Read if Looking For: fairy tales with blood, gore, and sex; morally dubious characters, traditional American Comic Book Art with modern storytelling sensibilities

Avoid if Looking For: thematic depth, emotional art styles, niche or non-European fairy tale references (so far)

Perdido Street Station

This is a book that’s been sitting on my ‘priority read’ bookshelf for about three years now. New Weird is a genre I’d been interested in, and Miéville’s reputation as an author who is concerned with his books as political objects pushing against the autoritarian status quo of fantasy really appeals to me. However, I’m finding that extremely large books put me off more than they used to, and I kept pushing it off until I was in the right mood. I left the book with mixed feelings. In some parts I felt in awe of what Miéville was accomplishing, and elsewhere I was disappointed in the choices he made to the point where I considered stepping away for a week or two. I have the feeling that I’ll be thinking about this book for a while, as it seems the type of story to sit with you.

The Premise
New Crobuzon is a dirty, grimy city. It’s filled with trash, corruption, and enough police brutality to make Vladmir Putin proud. It’s also home to humans, cactus-people, women with scarabs for heads, avian humanoids, literal demons, hands that can posess people, a whole caste with intensive plastic surgery forcibly grafting on mechanic or animal parts onto their bodies, among other things. This story mostly follows a dating couple: Isaac (a scientist) and Lin (an artist). Isaac gets recruited by a bird man without wings to get him to fly again, and Lin is recruited by a crime boss to create a masterpiece sculpture. Events spiral out of control, bizarrely leading to eldritch abominations let loose across the sprawling metropolis.

Read if You Like: unhinged worldbuilding, examinations of power and culture, eldritch horrors, characters without happy endings, books to chew on

Avoid if Looking For: fast paced stories, consistent female characterization, happy and mindless books

Mister B. Gone

I’ve known the name of Clive Barker for a while now. Hellraiser is influential enough that even someone who absolutely despises horror movies knows its basic imagery. He’s an author lauded as a pioneering queer writer and an author I had no intention of touching with a 10 foot pole. Mister B. Gone was recommended to me by a friend who swore it was their favorite book of all time though, and so I took the plunge into this dark comedy. It wasn’t a perfect book, but the writing was engrossing enough that I’m curious to try some of his books that are more widely lauded.

The Premise:
Jakabob Botch is a demon. A rather incompetent and pathetic demon really, who can’t even work magic properly. And he’s trapped inside a book, the book you’re reading incidentally. Throughout his recounting of his life’s story on Earth, he besseeches you to burn the book in your hands, to end his pitiful existence trapped in ink and paper. But fine, why not, he’ll tell you a little bit more, but only if you promise that you really will destroy the book by the end of it all.

Read if You Like: Fourth-wall breaking, morally bankrupt (but likeable) protagonists, humorous asides, demons and angels

Avoid if You Dislike: books without a strong A-Plot, engrossing climaxes, straightforwardly gay characters