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zillanovikov's reviews
78 reviews
The Audacity Gambit by B. Zedan
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
5.0
The Audacity Gambit is a gentle fairy tale, though the underlying themes are as uncompromising as any Fae could demand. Emily is the Chosen One, the one who can restore her people to the Fae Kingdom--but this is no accident of fate. Her life has been manipulated since the moment of her birth to fulfil the esoteric needs of prophecy, and the trusted adults of her life have been concerned only with preparing the way. But, while the world can put a person in a box long enough that she assumes its shape, she can still choose who she becomes when she steps outside.
The fantastical world is a character in its own right, full of whimsy in the style of Frank L Baum or Cat Valente, where Polaroid cameras reveal hidden mysteries and trees may--or may not--be trustworthy. While I never feared for Emily's life, I wondered what she would hold onto when everything changed.
The fantastical world is a character in its own right, full of whimsy in the style of Frank L Baum or Cat Valente, where Polaroid cameras reveal hidden mysteries and trees may--or may not--be trustworthy. While I never feared for Emily's life, I wondered what she would hold onto when everything changed.
Transmentation | Transience by Darkly Lem
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Darkly Lem’s richly woven tapestry of a science fiction novel asks us who we are, deeper than the flesh and memories that imprison us, and if we can ever escape the societies that we belong to. Characters jump from universe to universe, from shell to shell, seeking to hold on to core identity that they're not always confident exists. In lieu of the certainty of self, they lean on that of belonging to something greater than themselves–even when their society betrays them, they cling tightly to this sense of meaning in their lives. As someone who suffers from mental illness, I found the themes of identity fascinating.
And as a fan of expansive, thrilling science fiction, I was equally drawn in. There were universes of political scheming to match the White Tower, and others of fighting bug-eyed monsters with stolen swords. There was love, or friendship, or some ambiguous tangle that's both and neither, lost beneath ambition. Each fantastical world is as richly detailed as the characters that inhabit it, and they're combined to tell a captivating, satisfying tale.
And as a fan of expansive, thrilling science fiction, I was equally drawn in. There were universes of political scheming to match the White Tower, and others of fighting bug-eyed monsters with stolen swords. There was love, or friendship, or some ambiguous tangle that's both and neither, lost beneath ambition. Each fantastical world is as richly detailed as the characters that inhabit it, and they're combined to tell a captivating, satisfying tale.
Blight by Rachel A. Rosen
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Blight is FINALLY HERE and I'm not gonna be normal about it.
Book two in The Sleep of Reason series, this book is what happens when right-wing governments stop dog-whistling about fascism and fully commit to the bit. Set in Canada, this book shows how menacing "peace, order, and good government" can be.
It's not all doom and gloom. Sure, there's "Cleaners" and "unencumberances", but in the depths of the fractured cells of the rebellion, the queers finally move past "twenty years of pining". Love is all we've got. Sure, electricity and food is swell, but turns out, the heart's need for love and friendship and connection outlasts the rising ocean, the falling parliament.
Plus, this book is funny, and turns out, you can survive (almost) anything with the application of sufficient quantities of dark humour.
Book two in The Sleep of Reason series, this book is what happens when right-wing governments stop dog-whistling about fascism and fully commit to the bit. Set in Canada, this book shows how menacing "peace, order, and good government" can be.
It's not all doom and gloom. Sure, there's "Cleaners" and "unencumberances", but in the depths of the fractured cells of the rebellion, the queers finally move past "twenty years of pining". Love is all we've got. Sure, electricity and food is swell, but turns out, the heart's need for love and friendship and connection outlasts the rising ocean, the falling parliament.
Plus, this book is funny, and turns out, you can survive (almost) anything with the application of sufficient quantities of dark humour.
Beneath the Starlit Sea by Nicole Northwood
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
"And it certainly doesn’t compare to the moment where we told the laws of the realm that they could go **** themselves because whatever we have—lasting or temporary—is worth more than some nonsensical directive by a king who likely has no capacity for love."
This book is for anyone, like Illyse, on the outskirts, whose been told they don't belong. And it's for anyone like her and Garit who's been told their love shouldn't exist. This is a book about finding yourself by finding someone who sees all of you and loves it, no matter the risk, no matter the cost.
It's also a book about magic. There are Fae, and harpies, and magical murders to be solved and a kingdom to be saved. But the most important kind of magic is the small, intimate kind. The fires Illyse lights with her spells so she and Garit can be warm together in the night. The bond she has with her fox. The bond she forges with Garit.
This is a story about being accepted and being loved.
This book is for anyone, like Illyse, on the outskirts, whose been told they don't belong. And it's for anyone like her and Garit who's been told their love shouldn't exist. This is a book about finding yourself by finding someone who sees all of you and loves it, no matter the risk, no matter the cost.
It's also a book about magic. There are Fae, and harpies, and magical murders to be solved and a kingdom to be saved. But the most important kind of magic is the small, intimate kind. The fires Illyse lights with her spells so she and Garit can be warm together in the night. The bond she has with her fox. The bond she forges with Garit.
This is a story about being accepted and being loved.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Up the Entropic Hill by Mattie Bukowski
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is the queer autistic space romp you've been waiting for. Amber gives vibes of a (female, openly queer) Sherlock, but with all the baggage Moffat didn't want to acknowledge a character like that must have. The universe reminds me of the excitement I had reading the world building of Hitchhiker's Guide, or Space Opera, or Long Way to a Small Hostile Planet. It's fun, yo.
EUSECT by C.L. Methvin
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Eusect means to cut open, to dissect, to vivisect.
Some of the prey (predators?) in these short stories are lucky enough to be flayed after they are dead, but you, gentle reader, are still among the living. Your blood is sticky, your organs are squishy and warm, your bone is stark white. You can still feel pain, nausea, revulsion/fascination. You look at the pages through slits in your fingers, but you don't look away.
If the queer body is considered grotesque, let it be exquisitely horrifying. Let it linger, festering, refusing to be ignored, to go hungry. And when the body is gone, let the horror remain.
Ghosts cannot open doors, no matter how desperate they are to escape.
P.S. If you're a content-warning kinda reader, take these ones seriously, okay?
Some of the prey (predators?) in these short stories are lucky enough to be flayed after they are dead, but you, gentle reader, are still among the living. Your blood is sticky, your organs are squishy and warm, your bone is stark white. You can still feel pain, nausea, revulsion/fascination. You look at the pages through slits in your fingers, but you don't look away.
If the queer body is considered grotesque, let it be exquisitely horrifying. Let it linger, festering, refusing to be ignored, to go hungry. And when the body is gone, let the horror remain.
Ghosts cannot open doors, no matter how desperate they are to escape.
P.S. If you're a content-warning kinda reader, take these ones seriously, okay?
Gyre by Dale Stromberg
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A challenging and engaging character study - a book I couldn't put down and won't stop thinking about.
"Amniotic fluid drained from my lungs; as they filled with air, a nameless horror bloomed, and I shrieked."
What does it mean to be reborn? With full knowledge, could anyone forgive themselves for a prior lifetime of mistakes, regrets, sins, doomed to be repeated?
Or maybe the narrative doesn't doom. Maybe our destruction is written in our own belief in genetics, in trauma, modern-day versions of predestination. Or maybe change would be possible, if we were the kind of person who reached for it.
Abigail loves crosswords, suduko, writes music like solving a puzzle, where there is a right answer, pieces to put into their correct place. This is a story fit for her, where all the pieces slot exactly where they've always belonged.
"Amniotic fluid drained from my lungs; as they filled with air, a nameless horror bloomed, and I shrieked."
What does it mean to be reborn? With full knowledge, could anyone forgive themselves for a prior lifetime of mistakes, regrets, sins, doomed to be repeated?
Or maybe the narrative doesn't doom. Maybe our destruction is written in our own belief in genetics, in trauma, modern-day versions of predestination. Or maybe change would be possible, if we were the kind of person who reached for it.
Abigail loves crosswords, suduko, writes music like solving a puzzle, where there is a right answer, pieces to put into their correct place. This is a story fit for her, where all the pieces slot exactly where they've always belonged.
Letters to My Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism by Joanne Limburg
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
4.25