The Dark Mirror, Samantha Shannon

Book Title: The Dark Mirror

Author: Samantha Shannon

Series: The Bone Season #5

Date Started: February 26th  2025

Date Completed: March 2nd 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure, Action, Dystopian

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here. I was so ready to dive back into Paige's adventures that it took mere pages for me to be addicted again. I devoured chapters at a time and read the whole thing in 4 days despite its length. My inner mythology and archaeology nerd was spurred on even faster, and I lapped up the references and inspiration from Rome, Venice and beyond.

I appreciated the reminders of previous events threaded into the text. I would often criticise info-dumping, but it's constructive here; it's been a staggering five years since I read The Mask Falling. And for those who haven't reread the stories in the 'author's preferred texts,' don't worry. Shannon does direct readers to her website for a very short list of amendments, but it's been so long that I honestly wouldn't have batted an eye at the changes regardless.

There is a lot of talking in this book which, while enjoyable, made it feel less high stakes than what I remember of the previous books. An awful lot happens, but an awful lot of it happens off the page and outside of our protagonist's presence. That's just how it works when you have a first-person narrator, and I continue to be impressed at how the complex political and magical worlds are mostly kept accessible to the reader via the prose and Paige's inner circle's view.

I couldn't write this review without acknowledging something that I think went over my head when I was younger and reading the first books: Shannon's sense of place. She recreates real cities I've never been to as if they're outside my window and paints the places I know well with so much vibrancy it's like discovering them again for the first time. Her storytelling hinges so much on this staggering sense of reality and an instinctive desire to explore it - which Shannon allows us to in Paige's wanderings, her curiosity to seek out hidden sides of the city, and her evergrowing talent of inadvertently destroying any building she walks past. The heavy use of dialogue mentioned above almost doesn't matter; you can taste the air Paige is walking in, and that's powerful.

I'm hoping that the last two books in the series come out in closer succession to this one, as The Bone Seasion series thrives on momentum. The escalating conflict is reaching a crescendo in real time with these characters, and to throw us in in something close to real time too will make the fever pitch of whatever finale we're approaching unforgettable.

The Listeners, Maggie Stiefvater

Book Title: The Listeners

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Date Started: February 13th  2025

Date Completed: February 26th 2025

Genres: Magical Realism, Historical, Thriller

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Of course, The Listeners has fascinating subject matter, well played with; a luxury hotel in the mountains turned indulgent prison (and at some times, a stage) for the opposition's diplomats during the early Second World War. But that's all really just the backdrop to a story about how people pretend, present and project themselves onto those around them, and what those people do in response.

Plot-wise, the start has a lot of exciting paths being shown to us, then there's slow-going progress through the middle before the satisfying and rousing finale in the last 15%. The final twist could've used a bit more buildup, but overall I was hooked almost the whole way through. Stiefvater also presents a fantastic use of magical realism to make the story feel full, to materialise these feelings of utter loss and dread and listlessness and steadfastness in a world falling apart, and a cast of characters screaming into the void as it happens.

I am utterly in love with the neurodivergent representation, so seamlessly in place. It's never called that, or really given a name at all, but it resounded so true and personally with me, and clearly what Stiefvater was intending. The power and respect June has, and the 'unusual' parts of how she thinks that make it possible, fills my heart. As a protagonist, she is idealistic and insightful and unmoving, but also not infallible and scared and stubborn. What an adaptation this would make if done well.

I was dithering between 4 or 5 stars for this book while reading - it's a great concept, creatively told, but dawdles in the middle and almost falls into the listlessness of literary fiction. But, actually, I haven't felt this moved in a way I can't articulate in a long time; so 5 stars it is.

Sunbringer, Hannah Kaner

Book Title: Sunbringer

Author: Hannah Kaner

Series: Fallen Gods #2

Date Started: February 1st  2025

Date Completed: February 13th 2025

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Action

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I fell in love with Godkiller last year, and had to reason with myself to pace out this second book so I wasn't waiting too long for the third to come out, and I think that actually deepens the connection to the story. This world gets bigger with every page, the street corners become clearer, the details bloom with each word. To binge this series would be a disservice to its weight that follows you around for days after you finish it.

I love that Kaner is confident enough to have a whole novel where the characters are separated, and still keep their arcs at the heart of the ever-growing world. The conflict and the politics, no matter where you stand, clash in a startlingly realistic power struggle, and Kissen, Elo and Inara (and Skedi of course) are our anchors. Everything is a grey area, everyone's choices have consequences; you can only do right by yourself and trust others to make their own choices wisely.

The twists aren't satisfying because you see them coming, but more because you're so busy enjoying yourself you aren't racing to catch it before its time. There's a magic to welcoming in your reader so gently that they're at the mercy of whatever story you want to tell them. Suppose you step back and look at things academically. In that case, this novel isn't too far away from falling into the classic 'middle book' trench of filler to get characters to a place to begin the final stand - but the difference is the pieces being moved on the board have purpose, motivation and high-strung emotions. Pushing them towards the end has just as much substance as any battle scene.

Even with the high tension standard, Kaner can turn it up more notches than you could ever see coming. Be it through action so cinematic it gets your pulse racing, or deus ex machina so ethereal you can almost feel the wind on your skin, events pitch up and up towards a well-resolved end but promise far more to come.

Only Human, Sylvain Neuvel

Book Title: Only Human

Author: Sylvain Neuvel

Series: Themis Files #3

Date Started: January 27th  2025

Date Completed: February 1st 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I’ve never been able to settle into science fiction literature, and while the first book in this series had a mythic/fairytale quality that I liked, the trilogy has progressed into pure sci fi (which is absolutely fine, I’ve just found my attention waning unfortunately).

That being said, there were three things that kept sticking out to me reading this; the transcript style often doesn’t lend itself to the drama the story seems to need, the characters can often very flippant with their generation of countries (I get some of them are supposed to be bad people but even the main cast do it), and - most importantly - I don’t buy the melodramatic father/daughter drama for a second, it’s far too shallow and performative on both sides.

I miss Rose being the main character, and I miss Kara all around. I think that, for me, was why almost all the beats in Only Humans just didn’t hit; there didn’t seem to be an emotional anchor in the way the other books had. I’ve read a lot of books about governments turning into facist world-ending adrenaline junkies and having a field day being corrupt politicians, whether it’s against aliens or the lower classes or each other. I want to pay more attention to the people standing against them.

Sisters of Fire and Fury, Laura Bates

Book Title: Sisters of Fire and Fury

Author: Laura Bates

Series: Sisters of Sword and Shadow #2

Date Started: January 18th  2025

Date Completed: January 27th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Action, Romance

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

My kind of romance, my kind of thriller, my kind of everything really. Heart-pounding action, heartwarming love, and heart-burning fury. When I realised it was the last few pages, I didn't want it to end.

I enjoyed the first book, but I feel like I understood the second book more. It's so well done, so much fun but so political and real - the balance is so well crafted. I remember reading an interview with Derek Landy (author of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, and one of the most influential writers of my childhood) where he was talking about action and violence involving young characters. He spoke about how important it was to him to show that action is exciting but getting hurt, well, hurts. It's scary even with a weapon in your hand, and no one is invincible. There's a handful of moments in Sisters of Fire and Fury where I was reminded of that and impressed by how Laura Bates doesn't glorify the fantasy of female knights - glorious as it is - because they are hurt, they are scared. They are protecting not conquering.

I speak a lot about adaptations around retellings and between mediums, and if I ever had to teach a class on it, I think this would have to be one of the examples. The first book was very loose with its inspiration, while this one meets it head on, but with so much love for the original myths of King Arthur. Instead of strictly rewriting it or giving it a click-bait 'twist, the story is instead allowed to grow with new opportunities that the original myth never saw. It's modernised through the acknowledgement of how our morality system and culture has evolved, and by seeing where that new perspective leads us.

The themes in these books feel so true, so close, even if the rest is beautiful medieval fantasy. I'm grateful to have these books as a 20-something. I hope they're devoured by younger.

For She is Wrath, Emily Varga

Book Title: For She is Wrath

Author: Emily Varga

Date Started: January 5th  2025

Date Completed: January 18th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

For the record, I put this book down at 51%. I was determined to get far enough into the story for Dania to start acting rather than just talking but, unfortunately, she'd sidestepped actually doing anything too many times for me. This book is very dramatic and grand in its idea of itself, but the actual encounters between characters are trivial. The protagonist builds things up in her prose but does very little to act on her threats when she gets the opportunity.

I really don't need to be told three to five times a chapter that Dania's ex-lover took advantage of her and betrayed her - that's made clear enough in the synopsis and first couple of sentences in the story. I didn't find the relationship flashbacks overly compelling in driving this part of the story (and I would bet that the book ends with them getting back together and it all being a big misunderstanding) but I still understand that you're using the enemies-to-lover trope reversed, please stop spamming the prose with it. This book would be 100 pages shorter and probably more tense for letting the reader draw their own conclusions if this detail wasn't written plainly every couple of pages.

In all fairness, I do think my opinion of the book ultimately suffered from expectations set by the marketing. I was expecting a fresh new take on this well-known trope with a rich magical system, but it ended up quite bland and didn't offer anything new to help me put with the YA narrator.

The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon

Book Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Author: Samantha Shannon

Series: The Roots of Chaos #1

Date Started: December 15th  2024

Date Completed: January 5th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

King Arthur, Theseus and Gilgamesh eat your heart out, this is a great epic of women in par with Le Guin and Zimmer Bradley. There is no explanation why women stand at the prow of so many intrinsic roles, they simply do - how liberating it is to experience a story like that.

Unsurprisingly, the worldbuilding is marvellous. Drawing inspiration from our world and mixing it with a generous helping of fantasy creates an entirely absorbing universe brimming with politics and magic, culture and conflict. The build-up to the final battle is what makes the ending truly impressive - I haven't been transfixed by a climax like that for ages.

Did it need to be that long? No, of course it didn't. But I have to admit, I enjoyed almost every page. You've got to give credit to Shannon for fully realising such a complex story in only one novel rather than cashing in on a trilogy (as this could easily have been). While you definitely feel the 800+ pages, the momentum is so consistent that you're more than satisfied letting it take its time.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a complex story, but thoughtful too. It never passes omnipotent judgment on its characters or their part in its events. So much of the narrative explores the diametrically opposed beliefs and motivations of the different regions and nations, all tangled up in each other's lives and trying to make peace with what they want within it. Shannon lets the reader learn and fall in love as they wish, victories and defeats washing over them like real life. If you weren't sure of Samantha Shannon's storytelling prowess before this book, there's no denying it now.