Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
I’ve commented before that I give very few five-star reviews. Usually, I expect a book to somehow change my thinking, or how I see the world, in order to rate it a five-star book. As I sat down to write this review I was going to say something like, “While that didn’t happen with Shadowshaper, by Daniel José Older, I still…” and then I thought more about it, and decided that Shadowshaper (2015) has changed how I think about the world,
August 1st, 2019. Marion Deeds and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Daniel José Older | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Crescent Moon by Lori Handeland
Crescent Moon (2006) is a werewolf romance, fourth in Lori Handeland’s NIGHTCREATURE series. Diana is a cryptozoologist who is desperate to discover an unknown species, to fulfill a promise she made to her late husband. Her quest brings her to the Big Easy in search of the loup-garou werewolves that are reputed to lurk in the swamps. It also brings her to the attention of the brusque and secretive, yet sexy, Adam Ruelle.
I was interested in Crescent Moon mainly because it was set in New Orleans,
July 31st, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 1 | Lori Handeland | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Silvie’s summer vacation is a nightmare. She, her abusive father, and her browbeaten mother have joined a college professor and his three-person Experimental Archaeology class in the northern woods of England, where they are trying to live like the ancients. For the class, it’s a learning experience and something of a lark, at least at first. For Silvie’s father, it’s deadly serious; he’d love to live like that all the time, as he imagines Iron Age Britain to be the world of his racist and sexist dreams.
July 30th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Sarah Moss | Edge, Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire
Night and Silence begins with Toby and her friends still recovering from the events of The Brightest Fell. Tybalt is suffering from PTSD and pushing Toby away. Jazz isn’t doing much better. Sylvester is mad at Toby because of what happened with Simon. Toby doesn’t need a new problem, but that’s exactly what she gets when her human ex, Cliff, and his wife, Miranda, turn up on her doorstep. Toby’s daughter Gillian, now a student at UC-Berkeley,
July 22nd, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire
After two “monster of the week” episodes, The Brightest Fell (2017) brings us back to the secrets that were revealed in The Winter Long, surrounding Amandine, Simon, Eira Rosynhwyr — and Toby’s long-lost sister, August. But first, Seanan McGuire draws us in, as she did in Once Broken Faith, with a heartwarming scene of comic relief. This time, it’s Toby’s bachelorette party. The. Luideag.
July 19th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire
Once Broken Faith (2016) begins with a hilarious scene in which Toby & co. host a slumber party for a horde of fae teenagers, during which the kids devour unholy amounts of junk food and discover the joys of Disney movies. The festivities are then interrupted by Queen Arden Windermere, who wants Toby as a witness as she uses Walther’s elf-shot cure to wake Madden and Nolan. The High King decreed that no further use of the cure should take place until after a conclave of fae royalty can meet and discuss it,
July 12th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Red-Rose Chain by Seanan McGuire
This is one of my favorite of Chris McGrath’s covers for the OCTOBER DAYE series, and it’s one of my favorite titles too, so it pains me to say that this isn’t one of my favorite books in the series. A Red-Rose Chain (2015) suffers from some pacing issues and didn’t quite knock my socks off like The Winter Long did.
The kingdom of Silences, analogous to mortal Portland, declares war on the Mists.
July 10th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire’s OCTOBER DAYE series is one that can be divided into two types of books: ones that develop the larger “metaplot,” and ones that deal with more episodic concerns (though the events of the episodic books tend to have important consequences later in the series).
The Winter Long (2014) is a metaplot book, and it’s a doozy.
Toby is ready to crash after the new Queen’s winter solstice party, when the doorbell rings.
July 5th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Cassie Blake is distraught when her mother decides to uproot to the small town of New Salem in order to take care of a grandmother who Cassie had never even met before. But that is only the start of her problems. Starting a new school, trying to make new friends — and discovering that some of the people she would most like to befriend are all part of some secret Club that Cassie is not permitted to join. Then a girl dies and Cassie is finally initiated into the Secret Circle,
February 14th, 2019. Amanda Rutter (guest) and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | L.J. Smith | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner
I first read Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Kingdoms of Elfin (1977) almost twenty years ago. At the time, I was using the recommendation lists in the back of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s fairy tale books as a to-read list (side note: I highly recommend this; I found lots of amazing books that way). The online used-book market was not what it is today, so I found most of them by haunting the local used bookstores constantly to see if anything on the list had appeared since my last visit.
October 10th, 2018. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Sylvia Townsend Warner | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
I would love to completely leave the psychopathic edgelord's hellsite, but bsky appears to exist only as an app, and…
I had it on my list to reread (which means I looked over at the bookcase one night, saw it…
Marion, I'm saving James (and Orbital) for after my semester ends so I can devote my undivided attention to them.…
Susan, glad you enjoyed. Samuel Jackson should absolutely play him in the movie!
Troy, 100% agreed. Sadly the BBC adaptation is also confused about this. They seem to think Orciny is some kind…