A review by declaired
The House of Always by Jenn Lyons

5.0

I just!! like these books so much!!

The House of Always is the "your friends are your power" scene in any anime or videogame to buoy up the protagonist in his seemingly-impossible fight against the end of the world, done long-form. It's also a haunted house story. It's also a story about how a kraken can love a dragon very very much. It's incredible. Jenn Lyons throws all the story tropes I love and many that feel like excerpts from my teenaged dreams (why shouldn't there be a race of horse-people and people-horses and also like some soul-bonding between them? Why shouldn't you turn your characters into mermaids?) into a big blender of emotions.

As always I recommend the audiobooks because the cast of characters is huge and the narrators do a fantastic job of using different (but CONSISTENT) voices across all the novels for all the characters; just an extra level of context when someone you haven't seen for a minute comes riding back on screen, or if you're likely to confuse your Thurvishar with your Terindel or your Teraeth.