The Haunted House on Hollow Hill

Book Title: The Haunted House on Hollow Hill

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant

Date Started: October 7th  2024

Date Completed: October 11th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Action

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I always marvel at how quickly Derek must write for the main series and these spin-offs to come out in such quick succession. I enjoyed the podcast version of this story a lot, but I find it hard to follow audio-only media so decided to read the books as well (I conveniently drifted off to sleep on the episode the killer was revealed so it made both experiences satisfying).

You can tell that the novel has been written for an audio production, the scenes dance around a little unnaturally for prose - but it's also very creative with the sound landscape and design. Of course that makes the podcast version really interesting, but it's also fun to see the way it weaves into the fabric of the narrative even when written.

These little mystery spin-offs are always fun and realised to the point they don't feel gratuitous. Derek is so good at creating new casts of characters, it feels new every time. I also really enjoyed that Valkyrie and Skulduggery are rarely the protagonists but instead feature in someone else's story. It makes the universe all the bigger and exciting.

Ultimately, The Haunted House on Hollow Hill wasn't my favourite instalment in the Skulduggery series (saga, is it big enough to call a saga yet?) but it was still fun, and actually really cool to see them trying new forms of storytelling for the series that make it all the richer.

Mr Fox

Book Title: Mr Fox

Author: Helen Oyeyemi

Date Started: September 21st  2024

Date Completed: October 7th 2024

Genres: Magical Realism

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I love me some magical realism, I love fairy tale retellings, or be concise; I love Helen Oyeyemi. She is undoubtedly one of the most exciting, creative and dynamic storytellers out there. Her books feel so original even though they're steeped in stories we know like the back of our hands (or, I have to remind myself, are familiar even if you're not an amateur folklorist like me).

Mr Fox retells the Victorian fairy tale of the same name by Joseph Jacobs - as well as the countless other adaptations of Charles Perrault's Blue Beard and the dozens of very similar fairy tales involving a husband who punishes his new wife's curiosity once she discovers the corpses of his previous spouses. Oyeyemi's Mr Fox takes the wit and wariness of Vonnegut's version alongside the wicked vibrancy and liberation of Marina Warner and Angela Carters'. And I don't use those names to compare, but to celebrate the well-deserved place Oyeyemi has carved out for herself among them.

I'm discovering that Oyeyemi's novels are omnipotent yet aware of their own edge and irony; the novelist is simultaneously hidden behind her characters and yet oh so obvious as the author. Her narratives are magical realist and literary but also delve into downright fantastical and even social realist in tone, their transitions meticulously timed. It's the kind of book you descend into and have to blink a few times once the pages have stopped turning to reorientate yourself.

Rule of Wolves

Book Title: Rule of Wolves

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: King of Scars #2

Date Started: August 6th  2024

Date Completed: September 20th 2024

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

As part of my quest to finish the unfinished book (and TV) series on my list, I picked up the second book in the King of Scars duology having left it behind after the first book came out. I'm glad I did; this book was a nice ending to the saga that began with Shadow and Bone, appropriately bittersweet with a feeling of real weight and accomplishment within the world.

King of Scars wasn't my favourite, and seemed to wander around various places, characters and themes and struggled to decide what it wanted. Rule of Wolves similarly had its focus on a few too many places - particularly with merging two series like the Netflix adaptation decided to do. There were several references and cameos that didn't amount to much, and it's fun but actually ends up making the world feel so much smaller. That all being said, it was nice in the moment and this second book definitely had a better-realised plotline and resolution.

I wouldn't mind visiting Ravka again, but I would love a story that doesn't feel the need to incorporate existing books and characters and can breathe by itself. I very much look forward to whatever Bardugo has cooking up that is new too.

Blue Door Venture

Book Title: Blue Door Venture

Author: Pamela Brown

Series: Blue Door #4

Date Started: June 30th  2024

Date Completed: July 25th 2024

Genres: Adventure, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

My saga of finishing off childhood book series continues, this time with a classical and beloved one: the Blue Door Theatre books. These stories, like Ballet Shoes and Malory Towers, sustained me as a child on magical dreams of the theatre and performance. It was a joy to revisit the world - and poetically at a time when I had finally been able to fund a creative passion project with a team of wonderful people; arguably the thing these stories had persuaded me to do all those years ago.

I loved the road-trip mystery plotline, it felt fresh from what I remembered of the series. Touring around all these places in the UK, many of them now familiar to me, as the characters discovered them for the first time was a lot of fun - and of course incredibly wholesome. As with a lot of old-fashioned ensembles, the characters blur a bit and end up divided into the boys and the girls. But Brown has such a respect for all kinds of hard work that the relationships and drive of the friends and siblings felt genuine and inclusive. For a book from the 40s, it holds up impressively well.

While it was a shorter story in the series, I massively enjoyed reading it. I can't believe there's only one left (she says after not reading this book for a decade) - and with Maddy, the only real protagonist, no less.

Godkiller

Book Title: Godkiller

Author: Hannah Kaner

Series: Fallen Gods #1

Date Started: June 23rd  2024

Date Completed: June 30th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Simply put, Godkiller is the most fun I've had with a fantasy adventure in ages. While it started off feeling like a gender-bent Witcher-y story (no harm in that), it quickly fell into its own stride and become unputdownable.

There are compelling characters with solid motivations and unravelling stories; such lush, grim and spectacular worldbuilding; each scene hums with a special little magic. This book envelops you almost instantly and stretches as far as the eye can see. But the one thing that warmed my heart the most was some of the best diverse representation (featuring diversity as normal, beyond a token character trait) I've ever read.

The final twist I did see coming, but even so the ripple effect it had across the ensemble retains its impact. I cannot wait for the second book (I already bought it before turning the last page of this), and hopefully more to come down the line to spin this tale even further for us to enjoy. There's a lot still simmering away and as Kaner puts it in her acknowledgements, this is just the beginning.

The Phoenix and the Firebird

Book Title: The Phoenix and the Firebird

Author: Alexis Kossiakoff & Scott Forbes Crawford

Date Started: June 15th  2024

Date Completed: June 23rd 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Historical

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

The Phoenix and the Firebird is charming, enjoyable and good fun. A welcome addition to the pantheon of children's fantasy, it weaves traditional storytelling from Russia (our protagonist's homeland) and China (where the story is set).

While the inspiration is directly explored through various mythical creatures from Chinese and Russian folktales, I wouldn't say the cultural identity was necessarily pivotal in these story elements; they could just as well have been any other fantastical creature or even completely new inventions and have served the same purpose. It also felt like we learn a lot more about Russian myth than we do about Chinese. It was a shame that the unique roots and meanings of the creatures were lost in the action, but didn't take away from the fun of the story.

The modern narration style often found in contemporary children's books (and Young Adult) never fails to ruin the immersion of a period setting. This book does well for the most part of balancing the stakes and threat with an appropriate sense of danger and security. It was only towards the final act when Lucy faced the villain that things just felt a bit too silly to buy into. At the moments when real, genuine danger and fear came into play, the book decides to fall into nursery rhyme rather than accessibly deal with the subject matter.

The True Queen

Book Title: The True Queen

Author: Zen Cho

Date Started: June 2nd  2024

Date Completed: June 15th 2024

Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I suspected I was going to fins The True Queen challenging; I didn't like the first book despite its popularity, but in my quest to finish as many series as I can this year I decided to try again. Unfortunately, no luck.

It's been a while since I decided not to finish a book - but three sittings and 20% through was enough for me on this one. While the narrative is happy doing its own thing, it's the tone that is all over the place. Are these supposed to be children's books? They have the token 'charm' and confusingly dramatic but unthreatening stakes that I'm familiar with in stories with that audience - but there are lots of things that make me think it's probably intended for an older audience. I can see a lot of similarities with the writing of Diana Wynne Jones, but this just doesn't have that sparkle for me.

With all that being said, these vein of stories show we're clearly fascinated with updating and imaginatively evolving this setting. From Carnival Row to Bridgerton to The Paper Magician, regency (ish) England has become a popular backdrop to introduce diversity and a worldview beyond Europe into old fashioned modes of storytelling. It's an exciting opportunity to see through new eyes that I'm enjoying in some other forms, but this one just feels childish to me.