Review: But Not Too Bold, by Hache Pueyo

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠―Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides. Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's death, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.
But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.

"I hate being seen."

Hache Pueyo's But Not Too Bold is a Mexican novella leaning heavily on the weird side, with an ephemeral mystery plot that's more there to push the story along. The narrative follows Keeper of the Keys Dália as she investigates a theft under orders of her employer Anatema, a spider eldritch being who lives as a recluse on the third story of an isolated mansion filled with devoted servants. Anatema is appropriately terrifying, the detailed descriptions of her appearance a nightmare not only for arachnophobes.

This is a short story about learning to be seen. It's not just the eldritch being who needs to learn that and to trust her servants and her wives with her appearance, but also Dália, with her reluctance to be anything other than a servant with no aspirations and desires. Slowly, she finds herself willing to take risks and accept and embrace her desires - in short, being bold. The sweet ending perfectly encapsulates the titular motto.

But Not Too Bold is a short delight.

✨ 3.5 stars

Snippet: Until the Last Petal Falls, by Viano Oniomoh

When Eru was eleven years old, he met an unforgettable boy.Only a few weeks after, he forgot all about that boy. Ten years later, after his parents’ sudden deaths, all Eru wants is to find a way out of the village he was supposed to leave behind, and escape the abuse of his grieving grandmother. When he receives a summons from Able Mummy, the wife of the High Chief, it seems all of his prayers have been answered.
Able Mummy needs his help. But she and the High Chief have a secret. Once Eru uncovers the truth, he finds that the fate of the village, and that of the boy he’d been made to forget, could lie solely in his hands.

“Choose to live.”

Viano Oniomoh's Until the Last Petal Falls is a sweet queerplatonic retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in present-day Nigeria, a cozy novella featuring Nigerian folklore, many pop culture references, and a lovely exploration of the blossoming bond between two young men who are both aroace. The book races through their relationship, making it difficult to really care about them, especially with many developments being off-screen. It's still a sweet read, a perfect palate cleanser.

✨ 3 stars

Review: Time's Agent, by Brenda Peynado

Since humanity discovered the existence of pocket worlds, academics have embarked on exploratory missions as agents for the Institute for the Scientific and Humanistic Study of Portal Worlds to study this new technology and harness the potential of a seemingly limitless horizon. Archeologist Raquel and her biologist wife Marlena once dreamed the pocket worlds held the key to solving the universe’s mysteries.
Now, forty years in the future, Raquel is a disgraced ex-agent, pocket worlds are controlled by corporations squeezing every penny out of all colonizable space and time, and Marlena now lives in a pocket universe Raquel wears around her neck in which time passes faster than on Earth, and no longer speaks to her. Standing in the ruins of her dream and her calling, Raquel seizes one last chance to redeem herself, to her wife and her own failed ideals and confront what it means to save something―or someone―from time.

"Without time, everything is beautiful."

Brenda Peynado's Time's Agent is a sci-fi novella about time and grief, an alt-history take on the disappearence of the Taino people in what today is the Dominican Republic. Set in a world teeming with hidden entrances to pocket worlds, it deals with capitalism and colonialism and it's vibrant with fascinating concepts and a lush prose that really sells the imagery.

At its heart, it's a quiet story about how to deal with loss, especially the death of a child, and how it can tear a marriage apart. The main character, a sapphic woman in her thirties, has to deal with this loss alone for a portion of the book, as her wife needs time and space and solitude. The two plots end up mixing well into a delicate but heart-wrenching epilogue.

Time's Agent is a small gem.

✨ 4 stars

Review: Legend of the White Snake, by Sher Lee

When Prince Xian was a boy, a white snake bit his mother and condemned her to a slow, painful death. The only known cure is an elusive spirit pearl—or an antidote created from the rare white snake itself. Desperate and determined, Xian travels to the city of Changle, where an oracle predicted he would find and capture a white snake. In Changle, Xian encounters an enigmatic but beautiful stable boy named Zhen. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but Zhen soon realizes that he is the white snake Xian is hunting. As their feelings grow deeper, will the truth about Zhen’s identity tear them apart?

"Destiny is an excuse people give not to fight for what they really want in life."

Sher Lee's Legend of the White Snake is an achillean YA retelling of a chinese story about a snake spirit who can take a human form. It's a fresh retelling, keeping some beats of the original story while giving it its own spin. The relationship between the snake and the prince feels very much like insta-love, but it works in the context of it being a retelling, and the two main characters face enough development that that doesn't feel like a problem.

At first the characters feel a bit mono-dimensional, but they are given time to breathe and are explored more. Filial love is explored, and so is piety. The final third, with its twists and turns, felt very fast, but not too much.

This novel is very precise in describing a multitude of cultural aspects, from how to walk in and out of a temple to the different ways of dressing. It feels like a tame introduction to more famous and definitely more explicit danmei novels, which isn't inherently a bad thing.

Legend of the White Snake is a lovely read.

✨ 3.5 stars

Review: Ice Upon a Pier, by Ladz

Ruta Pawlak is one of the most successful contract killers Pier-Upon-Pier City has ever seen. Convicted of five murders that landed her multiple life sentences, her kill count allegedly sits between fifteen and two hundred people. Some were just for practice, others for revenge, and others she executed for money to keep her potentially world-record setting reading collection going.
For the first time, a biographer sits down with the legendary killer to hear her story in her own words. Get the details on her relationship with her depraved bosses and her eclectic arsenal of murder weapons from ice magic to poison to even the sun itself. From her impoverished upbringing to her introduction to the Syndicates to her bizarre affair with fellow killer Frieda Masters to Ruta’s eventual downfall, this account goes beyond headlines and court proceedings, weaving a story of love, family, survival, and murder.

"My warped sense of morality embarrasses me."

Ladz's Ice Upon a Pier is a sparse novella chronicling the life of a sapphic contract killer with ice powers. The narration jumps from past to present as she recounts her first kills, her romance with a fellow assassin, and how she eventually ended up in prison. She's unapologetic in her stories, with a caustic tone that works well, and ends up being very sympathetic, given her backstory and her self-imposed rules.

The worldbuilding is truly minimal, but this is a nice palate cleanser, a story with a noir feel and an Interview with the Vampire vibe. Coincidentally, vampires do exist in this world where crime syndicates make war on one another, and one makes an appearance. One gets the feeling that a sequel could be in the works, but the story is perfectly self-contained.

Ice Upon a Pier is a compact novella.

✨ 3.5 stars

Snippet: When Among Crows, by Veronica Roth

On Kupala Night, Dymitr arrives in Chicago’s monstrous, magical underworld with a perilous mission: pick the mythical fern flower and offer it to a cursed creature in exchange for help finding the legendary witch Baba Jaga. Ala is a fear-eating zmora afflicted with a bloodline curse that’s slowly killing her. She's just desperate enough to say yes to Dymitr, even if she doesn’t know his motives.
Over the course of one night, Ala and Dymitr risk life and limb in search of Baba Jaga, and begin to build a tentative friendship. . . but when Ala finds out what Dymitr is hiding, it could destroy them both.

“Magic is crooked, and so are we.”

Veronica Roth's When Among Crows is an excellent novella about grief, regret, and redemption. With a few deft strokes and a masterful economy of words, it paints a complete story with fascinating protagonists and explores a well-described world teeming with creatures from Slavik folklore. Chicago comes to life and so do banshees and stryga and zmory. The queer development was a welcome surprise, an ephemeral attraction growing into acceptance and love.

✨ 4.5 stars

Review: Lucy Undying, by Kiersten White

Her name was written in the pages of someone else's story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula's first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire, and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula's clutches--and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants. Her undead life takes an unexpected turn when, in twenty-first-century London, she meets another woman who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’s family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power.
Lucy has long believed she would never love again. But she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris, while Iris is mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by forces from without. Iris's mother won't let go of her without a fight, and Lucy's past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl again. Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?

"We're mausoleums, holding the girls we were with tenderness, and love, and strength."

Kiersten White's Lucy Undying is a sapphic and feminist retelling of Dracula, told through the perspective of Lucy Westenra and spanning one hundred and fifty years. There are two timelines; one set in the present, where a young woman escaping a cult finds young Lucy's diary, detailing her version of the Dracula novel, and the other detailing the years after the end of the Dracula novel, with Lucy searching for meaning, for Dracula, and for herself. The two storylines converge into a soft sapphic romance and an explosive ending where a conspiracy is unearthed and dealt with.

This is a novel about sapphic yearning, finding your true self, forgiving yourself, and the struggle against patriarchy. It's also a radical retelling of some core aspects of the original novel, and staunch fans of the book might not appreciate those changes, but they work in the context of this story, and make for an interesting perspective. The way these changes are tied to the present storyline works well enough, turning the book into a kind of thriller.

The final third of the book loses the balance of the first two thirds a little, as the cult storyline takes precedence and a new PoV is added in the form of short glimpses into the mind of a predator. Almost like in Dracula, the author plays a lot with different kinds of narrative styles, employing first person narration, second person, letters and texts, a third person section, and bits that read a little like Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. This might feel chaotic at first, but it's handled deftly enough.

The book shines with the vividly painted vampires Dracula created over the years, especially three figures that return again and again in Lucy's tale, and gives justice and agency to Lucy, painting the tragedy of being a young woman trapped by societal rules. Her journey is really the focal point of the novel, while also portraying the trappings of modern day cult-like organizations.

Lucy Undying is a sumptuous retelling.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Lost Story, by Meg Shaffer

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.

"You kill an artist, you kill all their unmade art too. Why don't people think about that before they hurt each other?"

Meg Shaffer's The Lost Story is a delightfully quirky and profound fairy tale about loss, found family, and forgiveness. This portal fantasy pulls no punches, crafting a story that doesn't shy away from harsher realities but instead, it builds on them. This isn't the first book to reflect on the conventions of the subgenre, nonetheless it does it well, and is in fact very moving in parts. The story follows equally the three main characters in a third person PoV that allows to delve into their stories as they search for Emilie's missing sister and for the truth about their own old disappearance; meanwhile, old feelings arise between Rafe and Jeremy, unveiling the delicate story of a friendship that can move mountains.

Their relationship is fascinating, complex, and very moving, showing how much love can survive anything. Now in their thirties, they're estranged, but fall back together with the easy simplicity of souls that know one another very well. The first third of the book deals with the mundanity of our world and Jeremy trying to get back Rafe's trust, just enough that he can join him and Emilie in their journey to find her sister. It's a necessary introduction, as we begin to see the depth of Jeremy's love and glimpse flashes of Rafe's trauma too. In the backdrop of the whimsical realm they're brought to, we see them grow closer together and reignite their friendship as the book careens towards a gruesome confrontation with the ghost of Rafe's past.

Emilie doesn't get much focus, but what we see is enough to make her a lovable addition. Queen Skya is another great character, a queen in her own right and a woman with a secret past, allowing the book to explore more the themes of escapism and abuse. This is really a lovely story about finding joy and peace and overcoming one's fears.

The prose is a bit of a hit and miss, its lyrical moments and profound musings interwoven with bits of dialogue that aim to be fresh and funny and filled with pop culture references. The narrator also takes the reins every once in a few chapters to directly address the reader, which might not be everyone's cup of tea.

The Lost Story is a wondrous tale.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Sun and the Void, by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

Reina is desperate. Stuck on the edges of society, Reina's only hope lies in an invitation from a grandmother she's never met. But the journey to her is dangerous, and prayer can't always avert disaster. Attacked by creatures that stalk the mountains, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Dona's magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn-and keep-her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.
Eva Kesare is unwanted. Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family's shame. She tries to be the perfect daughter, but Eva is hiding a secret: magic calls to her. Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet it's hard to ignore power when it has always been denied you. Eva is walking a dangerous path, one that gets stranger every day. And in the end, she'll become something she never imagined.

"Sometimes the garden path lined by rosebushes could lead to a thicket of thorns."

Gabriela Romero Lacruz's The Sun and the Void is the first book in a fantasy duology inspired by Venezuelan folklore, exploring themes of racism and twisted family dynamics well. The two PoV characters go each on a journey from passivity to taking agency and making choices. They’re not perfect characters, in fact they might infuriate some readers, but the author treats them seriously.

With her plot about being complicit in a sacrificial ritual, Reina is an unlikable protagonist who nevertheless is done very well, and following her journey of realization is very satisfying. Bound to the family that saved her, she latches onto the kinder members, willing to do everything that's asked of her, but the choices she makes at some turns are her saving grace. Eva is similarly trapped by her own blood relatives who despise the manner of her birth, and finally takes matters into her hands to carve her own path and save herself. As their paths cross, they're both changed by the experience, and their choices will prove to be explosive.

The supporting cast holds up well. Reina's grandmother shines with all her complexities, making her a well-rounded antagonist, and so does Celeste, a complicated character with a holier-than-thou attitude. The biggest surprises are Maior, graduating from background character to something more, and Javier, violent character with surprising depths. The interpersonal relationships between all these characters range from well-explored to barely scraping the surface, making some of the final beats inexplicable. Reina's relationship to Maior in particular suffers from this.

The worldbuilding is complex and intriguing, with an interesting magical system and races that are seen as other and dangerous. Our two main characters suffer from systemic racism, in a world where religious colonialism changed the attitude of the conquered land. There's political upheaval and a fight for their rights, but it's rather in the background, except in a big moment that should feel momentous but leads to absolutely nothing. Queerness isn't well-accepted either, and one could argue the need for recognition and the resentment towards who can pass are important themes of the book. Reina's infatuation with Celeste suffers from the ostracism in this world, and possibly we'll see in the next book the consequences of her beginning a relationship with a woman.

The pacing is the main problem of the novel, especially between the first and the second part of the book; the prose is at times evocative and at others a bit nonsensical.

The Sun and the Void is a promising debut with an interesting premise.

✨ 3.5 stars

Review: Peregrine Seas, by R.C. Ballad

Prince Peregrine couldn’t be happier to be kidnapped by pirates. Peregrine wasn’t cut out for the restrictive life of a nobleman – he's hungry for adventure, prone to duelling, and his family refuse to believe he's any kind of man at all. Despite his royal origins, he has more in common with the outcasts and rebels aboard the Cygnus that anyone onshore.He just needs to convince the captain of that before his ransom's paid.
Captain Alastar Macdara knows better than to trust an English prince. He has his hands full keeping his ragged crew together, and the last thing he needs is to be burdened with some foppish dandy—however charming. This particular hostage is more trouble than Alastar planned used to getting his own way, as stubborn as Alastar and not afraid to tell him when he’s wrong. But Alastar knows a thing or two about being an outcast, and his honourable streak refuses to let him send Peregrine back to a life of misery. The ransom might be off, but that doesn’t mean Peregrine is part of the crew.

"The art of negotation."

R.C. Ballad's Peregrine Seas is a fun and quick pirate story featuring a sorta-merman pirate captain and a kidnapped prince who's more than willing to leave his kingdom. Set in our world, this fast-paced novel tells a delicate and funny story about found family, belonging, and making the most of your situation.

The love story between captain and prince develops fairly quickly, born from attraction at first, but it gets interesting beats towards the end. The real gem of this book however is the colorful crew, some of them with intriguing secrets, and the sea serpents and krakens the crew have to face.

The book draws clear inspiration from Our Flag Means Death, and in fact one could definitely depict most of the cast while reading. The tone is the same too, making for a heartfelt tribute.

Peregrine Seas is perfect for a relaxing read.

✨ 3.5 stars