Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
One thing we can be sure to expect from Colson Whitehead is the unexpected. The double Pulitzer Prize winner shot to fame with the alternate history (and FanLit favourite) The Underground Railroad. He debuted with speculative fiction, later wrote a zombie novel, and his work now takes another twist: a heist novel, in the form of his latest release, Harlem Shuffle (2021).
The book follows Ray Carney, a furniture salesman in 1950s –
October 21st, 2021. Ray McKenzie and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Colson Whitehead | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Ace of Spades (2021) is Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s first novel. It’s a YA thriller and doesn’t have any speculative elements, but if you like good prose, good characterization and high-suspense thrillers this book might be for you. I was not the target audience for this book, but after the first couple of chapters, I could not put it down.
Chiamaka and Devon are students at an upscale private high school called Niveus Academy. It’s senior year, and the two are each selected to be Senior Prefects (the school,
September 16th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Faridah Abíké-Íyímídé | Edge, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
A Genie. A golem. Nineteenth-century New York City. Boy, did I want to love this book. Drawn by its come-hither characters, its promise of poetry, and by its dark side in the form of a truly nasty character, I really, really wanted to love it. And truth is, I liked The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker. But in the well-trod words of middle school, I didn’t “like like” it.
June 25th, 2021. Bill Capossere, Marion Deeds, Ray McKenzie and Jana Nyman | Helene Wecker | Edge, Mythopoeic Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
Cherie Dimaline is a Métis writer and activist from the Georgian Bay Métis Nation in Ontario, Canada. She has received a number of awards for her novels and short stories, none of which I’ve yet had the pleasure of reading — but after reading Empire of Wild (2020), I’m definitely going to track them down. Her use of First Nations themes and folklore is fascinating, and a delightful change from the many fantasies based on European images and tales.
Dimaline has set Empire of Wild in Arcand,
February 25th, 2021. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Cherie Dimaline | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu
In the opening pages of On Fragile Waves (2021), by E. Lily Yu, young Firuzeh, her brother Naur, and their parents are on the start of a long journey from war-torn Kabul to the hope of a better life in Australia. To pass the time on that first leg, Firuzeh’s mother entertains them with a fairy tale. But the novel will be no fairy tale, as the family makes its way through Pakistan to Indonesia to an immigration detention camp on Nauru Island and finally to Australia itself,
February 5th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | E. Lily Yu | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
On the same day a riot destroys the market in Ngwa, Nigeria, the body of Vivek Oji is left on his parents’ doorstep, naked except for a length of cloth. Gradually, through a variety of points of view, Akwaeke Emezi unfolds the story of Vivek’s life and death, and how that death affects Vivek’s loved ones — drawing some people closer together, driving faultlines between others.
Readers who’ve read Emezi’s earlier work might expect more supernatural elements than The Death of Vivek Oji (2020) actually contains.
August 25th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Akwaeke Emezi | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
I recently learned the term Dark Academia, and while I’m probably too old to be a part of the subculture, I wish I’d had a name for it earlier. Schools and colleges with dark secrets have long been one of my favorite forms of literary catnip. It was probably inevitable that I’d be interested in Elisabeth Thomas’s Catherine House (2020), the story of a rudderless young woman attending a most unusual college.
The titular Catherine House is “not just a school,
August 5th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Elisabeth Thomas | Edge, Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Conjure Women (2020) by Afia Atakora is a first novel that I can hardly believe is a first novel. It’s a beautifully written, hard-hitting story of an African American healer just before and just after the end of slavery in the US. It’s not a fantasy novel, but I’m reviewing it here at FanLit because it has a few magical realist elements, and because it’s in part about magic, and people’s belief in magic, even when none is actually taking place.
July 16th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Afia Atakora | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Book of Bones by John Connolly
2019’s A Book of Bones is the 18th book in John Connolly’s CHARLIE PARKER series. This series is dark, with a thriller plot steeped in supernatural elements. Over the years, we’ve seen Parker, his human helpers Louis and Angel, and his supernatural protectors Sam and Jennifer face a variety of entities. A Book of Bones seems to resolve most of the issues around a specific Not-God and an evil murderous cult called the Familists.
July 9th, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | John Connolly | Edge | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
When Rob Ryan was twelve, he and his two best friends went off to play in the woods and disappeared. Rob’s friends were never seen again. Only Rob came home, and without any memory of what had happened to the three of them while he was missing. Twenty years later, Rob is a detective with the Dublin Murder Squad. When he is called upon to investigate the killing of a twelve-year-old girl in the same forest, Rob is confronted again with his old trauma.
In the Woods (2007) is the first in Tana French’s DUBLIN MURDER SQUAD series.
October 29th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Tana French | Edge | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
I'm coming off a week of less than satisfying reads, including Kate Elliott's Furious Heaven (exciting but eventually wearying tale…
Yep, which is why I'm willing to give a sequel a shot
Thanks for the reviews you two. I put the book on my TBR as soon as I saw ads for…
We seem to be on the same page. Yeah, the depiction of some (at least two) of the women characters…
The correct and more accurate term for the book thing is "challenged," I think. Frankly, the intentional removal of books…