laurareads87's reviews
587 reviews

Toward Eternity by Anton Hur

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reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

There is much I enjoyed about Toward Eternity – it has multi-POV storytelling that spans many many many years yet feels like a cohesive narrative, it features a diverse cast of characters, and it’s beautifully written; in many ways, this novel doesn’t feel like a debut. The author has done some interesting things with technology here, effectively creating a ‘ship of Theseus’ paradox with the idea of humans being able to have all of their cells replaced with nanites, curing disease and creating a kind of near-immortality. 

What didn’t quite work for me – the insertion of the poetry felt somewhat forced and took me out of the narrative. Some points felt a bit didactic to the point that the narrative and characters felt de-emphasized compared to the ‘argument’ of the text. 

I enjoyed this novel overall & would absolutely read another work by Anton Hur. 

Content warnings: violence, death, war, genocide, mention of miscarriage 
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Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

Absolution had to be one of my most anticipated 2024 releases; having previously read the Southern Reach Trilogy (back when it was released) as well as some other titles from Vandermeer, I was very excited for another instalment and more backstory of Area X. 

Absolution is comprised of three parts: the first, ‘Dead Town,’ takes place pre-Area X and follows biologists conducting an experiment in the Forgotten Coast, the second, ‘The False Daughter, is set later – 18 months pre-Area X – and refers back directly to the first, and the third, ‘ takes place ‘one year after the border came down’ and follows the first expedition into Area X. 

This is hard to rate because I found the three sections quite uneven, and would give them different star ratings; I’m giving a 4 because I don’t want to down-rate the first two sections based on liking the third section significantly less. 

I don’t think this is vital to appreciating the Southern Reach Trilogy, nor do I think it leaves all questions answered (of course it wasn’t going to), but I do think that fans of the trilogy will appreciate this book as a chance to revisit Area X in all its strangeness. I would say I liked the first part best – it’s deeply unsettling – followed by the second, which feels a bit slower paced but Old Jim is a great character and there is a lot of intrigue. The third, wherein we finally get to enter Area X as readers, I actually enjoyed least; there are some great weird scenes but the narration is disjointed and hard to follow (for reasons that are explained in the context of the story) and this, for me, made the expedition’s experiences less impactful. 

I would not suggest reading this first; it doesn’t feel straightforwardly like a prequel and for that reason I’d suggest at least reading Annihilation, if not the entire trilogy, before picking up Absolution. You could read this first – particularly the first section which feels relatively self-contained – but I don’t think I’d have gotten as much out of this text had I not read the trilogy first. 

Content warnings: violence, gun violence, death, animal death, injury detail, drug ab/use, blood, gore, body horror, cannibalism (graphic) 
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Your Tarot Toolkit: A Workbook for Building Clear, Precise, Confident Readings by Tom Benjamin

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informative inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

5.0

Tom Benjamin’s Your Tarot Toolkit does something that few tarot books manage to do: it functions as an intermediate to advanced level tarot book without bringing in too many extraneous topics. Often, finding a non-beginner tarot book means finding a book about tarot and something else – tarot and astrology, tarot and numerology, tarot and social justice, tarot and creative writing – with the ‘something else’ really being the only point of new information for experienced tarot readers. Here, Tom Benjamin has written a book that is wholly tarot-focused that specifically caters to a readership already familiar with the usual beginner book fare – major/minor arcana structure of a deck, what a spread is, etc. – but looking to build their skills. This is a book that will be of particular interest to those giving, as the subtitle suggests, ‘clear, precise, confident readings’ – the author’s approach is very much geared toward reading to discern specific answers to specific questions so that querents leave the table (or the zoom call, or the email) feeling like they’ve gotten what they asked for. The vast majority of the book is focused on reading for others, though I’d argue that the principles – the importance of a clear question, the importance of the spread matching the question, and so on – equally apply to reading for oneself. I appreciate that the example querents are diverse (in terms of names, relationship structures, life circumstances, etc). It’s a book I’d readily recommend to readers looking to expand their skillset who feel like they’re past needing beginner-level books.

I will be posting a more detailed review in video format to YouTube on my channel Aquamarine18 Tarot & Books.  
Out of the Drowning Deep by A.C. Wise

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0

 I really wanted to like Out of the Drowning Deep, as it has a lot of elements that I tend to like – an automaton as one of the POVs, a mix of human and non-human characters, and an interesting setting in the Bastion – but it ultimately fell flat. 

I think some of the issue here is that there are too many themes for a novella this short. It’s like the author decided to write a book that tackles religion, memory, trauma, and addiction while also being a murder mystery and the result is that none of it really worked. The mystery’s resolution feels almost like an afterthought and it’s hard to really care about when none of the characters directly involved in the murder are developed enough to feel any investment in. It was almost a locked room mystery, but some characters being able to teleport in and out took away the element of pressure that a locked room provides. Some of the relationships are described in intense terms – Angel’s feelings about Scribe IV in particular – that make zero sense given the brief duration of the characters’ knowing each other, and the characters all seem to have a single trait – Angel looks scared all the time, Quin is traumatized, the Sisters have strayed from their god – that is repeated over and over, resulting in one-dimensional characters. Of all the characters, Scribe IV the outdated automaton is absolutely the most interesting; I think that if Scribe IV had been the sole POV and the murder had been the focus (rather than so much of Quin’s backstory) this novella would’ve definitely worked much better. 

I will say, some of my disappointment is probably tied to the marketing. I definitely don’t think this novella is remotely comparable to any of the authors (Chambers, Wells, el-Mohtar and Gladstone) that the blurb compares it to, and the description emphasizes a “race to find out who really murdered the Pope” while way too much of the plot is quite disconnected from this aim. 

What I did like about this was the world-building. The Bastion is a really cool setting, and the backdrop of the Pope’s conclave is interesting context. Unfortunately, the plot and characters are a lot less interesting. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing an ARC. 

Content warnings: religious trauma, addiction, suicide, death, death of a parent, grief 
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Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Le Petit Prince est un livre très spécial. Je ne lis pas souvent des livres plus d'une fois. Celui-ci, je le lis presque une fois par an. Quand je me sens triste, Le Petit Prince me soutient.

"Regardez le ciel. Demandez-vous: 'Le mouton oui ou non a-t-il mangé la fleur?' Et vous verrez comme tout change..."
The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

3.5, rounding up. The Gods Below is the first novel that I’ve read from Andrea Stewart. In the world of this novel, gods and mortals coexist, and the world has been divided into a series of regions with fairly strong boundaries between them. One by one, the regions are being remade: in a remaking, a wall of black ether spreads across the land, leaving the terrain lush and green, killing many mortals and irreversibly physically altering the rest. The novel begins with two young sisters, Hakara and Rasha, attempting to flee a remaking. 

There is a lot about this novel that I like. The magic system is well thought out and the world-building is rich and compelling. I like novels with multiple POVs. I also feel like the backdrop of the novel is well thought out; the dynamics between the different regions and the cultural and religious elements of each one are well developed and make sense. The prose flows smoothly, the pace is pretty consistent, and I was interested to see where the different plotlines would end up. What doesn’t quite work for me here is some of the character development. I was significantly more interested in some characters than others, including amongst the POV characters; two of the POV characters I found so extraordinarily narrowly focused on a single motivation that they fell a bit flat for me. 

On the basis of this first installment, I’ll definitely check out the second book in The Hollow Covenant trilogy. 

Content warnings: violence, blood, gore, body horror, death, animal death, murder, religious bigotry, classism, grief, abandonment, gaslighting, xenophobia, brief mentions of excrement & vomit 




Breath of Oblivion by Maurice Broaddus

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Having enjoyed the first book in the Astra Black series, I was happy to receive a copy of Breath of Oblivion. I think I might’ve enjoyed this one even more than its predecessor. There is so much about this series that I really, really like. Broaddus’ work with language is compelling (check out the glossary he provides, but also learn where these terms come from). The scale/scope of this space-set story is epic (the comparison to The Expanse makes sense in this respect, in that Mars, the Belt, and Earth are all here). The characters are memorable. There are a lot of POVs here; what I really like about this is that the reader gets a few different perspectives on the different plot lines. I appreciate that there are a range of complex, nuanced, well-written POV characters who are women. This series is – in the best way – to me very clearly written by a community organizer. I feel like Broaddus draws on so many theoretical, political, historical, and activist discourses in such interesting ways and all of these feel completely organic to the story-telling. I’m looking forward to the third installment already. 

Thank you to Maurice Broaddus, Tor Publishing Group, & NetGalley for providing me an ARC to review. 

Content warnings: violence, gun violence, forcible confinement, chronic illness, classism, racism, colonization, cultural appropriation, war 
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

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adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The Violin Conspiracy is a book way outside my usual genre comfort zone and it wasn’t quite what I expected based on the description. It includes a mystery of a stolen violin, certainly, but it is also the story of a young Black man navigating racist exclusion in the world of classical music. Ray’s family is largely unsupportive of his choice of music as a pursuit, and he must audition for opportunities alongside young people who’ve had far more opportunities – private lessons, expensive instruments – handed to them than he has. The mystery I did find somewhat predictable, but I really enjoyed the book regardless as the story of Ray’s ascent to musical fame and success was so wonderfully told. 

It did not at all surprise me to learn that several passages in the book are based on the author’s own experiences – it does read as almost biographical. Having read this novel, I have no doubt that author Brendan Slocumb is also a wonderfully supportive and nurturing music educator. I will happily read his next novel. 

One note: I do wish the g-slur for Romani folks wasn’t repeated several times. A word that means this in another language is the title of a piece of classical music so I can understand it appearing in that context specifically, but there were other places it was absolutely not needed. 

Content warnings: racism, racial slurs, police brutality, violence, blood, slavery, murder, death, torture, hate crime, gaslighting, xenophobia 
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The Trees: A Novel by Percival Everett

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

 Wow. I don’t even know how to describe The Trees, or how to begin to put into words what I’m thinking having just finished it. I don’t like “unique” as a descriptor in reviews but this is absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The combination of genre conventions, tone, themes, and message/analysis really would not sound like they’d work at all if one were to describe them, yet the book as a whole is extraordinarily effective and impactful. Well paced, solid character development, couldn’t put it down (though it isn’t always easy or comfortable to read) – I cannot wait to read more from Percival Everett. 

Content warnings: racism, racial slurs, hate crime, lynching, sexism, misogyny, fatphobia, classism, colonialism, xenophobia, murder, violence, blood, gore, death, injury detail, gun violence, medical content, genocide, police brutality, child abuse, mentions of sexual assault (not on-page or graphic) 
A Gathering of Weapons by Tracy Cross

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Having really enjoyed Rootwork, I couldn't wait to get right to the sequel. This installment in the Conjure series focuses on youngest sister Pee Wee who is now, years after the events of the first book, living with her aunty Teddy and learning rootwork. Pee Wee has several adventures in this novella, and everything I loved about the first book -- the vibrant world-building, memorable characters, and explorations of justice, spirituality, and relationships/family -- is here too.

While A Gathering of Weapons is self-contained and can be read as a standalone, I'd really strongly recommend reading its predecessor first as the characters' backstories are very relevant to fully grasping the developments here. There is definite room left open for a third installment, and I look forward to finding out where Tracy Cross takes this series next. Definitely recommend.

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