Review – Down Among The Sticks And Bones by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones
By: Seanan McGuire
Website: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450908-down-among-the-sticks-and-bones
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Publisher: Tor.com
Series: Wayward Children #2
Rating:


I have always loved portal fantasies, those books where a group of children fall through the back of a wardrobe and enter a world of fantasy and magic. Last year, Every Heart A Doorway piqued my interest based on its new spin on this familiar scenario – what happens when someone comes back to our world? Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire is dark, stunningly written, and utterly beautiful.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones has some of the loveliest prose I have read in quite some time. It’s the sort of writing that normally makes my father look fondly at the book in hand and say ‘people don’t write like this anymore’. Reading McGuire’s work is a real treat. I devoured this book; it was a one sitting read.

Review – Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

Dreamland Burning
By: Jennifer Latham
Release Date: February 21, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating:


It has been a long time since a book has struck me in the sort of way Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham struck me. It’s the sort of book that is devoured, read with the sort of all-consuming fervor that makes a person look up bewildered when the phone rings, or wondering when exactly the sun set. I loved this book. This book is important. It matters.

Review – The Novel of the Tumpinamba Indian by E. F. Granell

The Novel of the Tumpinamba Indian
By: E. F. Granell
Translator: David Coulter
Release Date: December 12, 2017
Publisher: City Lights Publishers
Rating:


When I heard that a novel written by a surrealist artist was being published in English for the first time, I knew I needed to read it. I was fascinated, both by the subject matter and the writer. The Novel of the Tumpinamba Indian is a surrealist take on the Spanish Civil War and was written by E. F. Granell, artist and revolutionary.

Review – Juana and the Dragonewts’ Seven Kingdoms Volume 1 by Kiyohisa Tanaka

Juana and the Dragonewts' Seven Kingdoms Vol. 1
By: Kiyohisa Tanaka
Translator: Adrienne Beck
Release Date: (English) January 16, 2018; (original)
Publisher: Seven Seas
Series: Juana and the Dragonewts' Seven Kingdoms
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


I’m always looking for a new fantasy story, a genre which has been just a little bit hard to find these last few years as the isekai genre has taken over just about everything. Juana and the Dragonewts’ Seven Kingdoms by Kiyohisa Tanaka is a beautiful, fun fantasy with a lot of heart. I’ve heard it related to the Ancient Magus’ Bride, and while I’m not completely up to date with either the manga releases or the anime, I can see why. This is a fantasy story, one where a human girl, maybe the last one, finds herself amid a realm of dragon like creatures. But instead of being from the point of view of a human suddenly plunged into a fantastical world, we are given the opposite – a fantastical creature living in a fantastical world finds a human without fully knowing what it is or what to do with it.

New Year, New To Be Read Pile

Every year bookworms everywhere take stock of the books they finished reading over the last 365 days and make a new goal for what they hope to accomplish this upcoming year. I am no different but I must admit I was disappointed in myself this past year as I barely reached my minimal reading goal and definitely did not write enough reviews this past year either. The reason for all of this? Reading slumps. What did I do to try and break out of this? Keep reading to find out!

More …