Welcome to our To Be Read pile! Or what was recently a part of our TBR pile. Here you can find reviews of the books we meant to pick up for months, sometimes years, and have only recently gotten to read. These are reviews of books that aren’t quite new, but not quite old either.
Standard Hollywood DepravityI can finally say I’ve finished the Ray Electromatic series. Standard Hollywood Depravity by Adam Christopher is a novella set between the first and second books in the series. It’s a short, fun mystery that can be easily read as a standalone story if you haven’t read the first novel in the series Made to Kill.
GoldelineGoldeline by Jimmy Cajoleas is a story of found family, magic, and memory. It is a middle grade novel I would have adored as a child, and one I devoured as an adult. If you’ve been sitting on this, I urge you to read it immediately.
Before She SleepsBefore She Sleeps by Binah Shah is a book is a dystopian novel set in a post-apocalyptic society where decreased fertility and disease have led to the human race declining, women being forced into marriages with multiple husbands. The story follows several women who resist this society and its rules. They do this in a very direct way – they are all part of an underground resistance – but also in their own smaller, personal ways. This is very much a story of autonomy and regaining autonomy.
Occultic;Nine Vol. 1The light novel Occultic;Nine Vol. 1 by Chiyomaru Shikura is a story about the occult, urban legends, and belief versus science and cold facts. Half a dozen very different people’s lives begin to intertwine in different, unexpected ways. All the while, there is a question that begs to be answered – is the occult real, and can science prove its existence?
Cutie Honey: The Classic CollectionI have long loved classic manga and anime. When a new edition of an older manga comes out you can bet that I am first in line for a copy. Obviously, I jumped on the chance to read Cutie Honey: The Classic Collection by Go Nagai. Cutie Honey is a lot of things. In one sense it’s a magical girl manga. In another it’s a sci-fi manga. It’s a mystery story. There’s violence, nudity, and sexual themes. And I loved every second of it.
The Manga Cookbook Vol 3: Fusion Food With Character This is a bit of a different review than most Mondays, though it is still manga related. I had my eye on this series of books for quite some time, but I hadn’t stumbled across any in my bookshop travels. Well, one of my friends came across a copy of The Manga Cookbook Vol 3: Fusion Food With Character! at Comic-Con and got me a copy!
State TectonicsI have been reading Malka Older’s Centenal Cycle series since it’s debut in 2016. It is a series which proved oddly timely, speaking directly to events which, as of its writing, hadn’t yet come to pass – namely, the events surrounding the 2016 US presidential election. Now, the series has come to a close with the third book in the series, State Tectonics. Like the two before it, State Tectonics is an oddly timely, fascinating look at politics, democracy, and the availability and spread of data and other information. Set on a future earth with a world government and micro-democracies, this is a book that shouldn’t be missed.
The Refridgerator MonologuesCatherynne Valente’s The Refrigerator Monologues is a slim novel that packs one hell of a punch. It is at once a collection of short stories and a novel. While there are multiple stories from different women being told, they come together and paint a very vivid world filled with superheroes and villains, an afterlife rich in community with a certain life of its own, and the women who were used, hurt, and forgotten by those who were supposed to love them.
Kill the Farm BoyI was very curious when I first heard about Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah Dawson and Kevin Hearne. Written by two authors I really like and with a fun premise, I was excited. After all, who doesn’t like a trope smashing, funny, romp through a fantasy world?
WitchmarkThis book has been sitting on my kindle waiting for me to read it for quite some time. Now, my only wish is that I’d gotten to it sooner. Witchmark by C. L. Polk is an absolutely fantastic novel about magic, love, family, war, and the bonds between siblings.
Welcome to Looking Glass Reads! We review speculative fiction novels as well as manga, light novels, and graphic novels.
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