The Ersatz Elevator

Book Title: The Ersatz Elevator

Author: Lemony Snicket

Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events #6

Date Started: December 12th  2024

Date Completed: December 15th 2024

Genres: Adventure, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

A Series of Unfortunate Events were such classics in my childhood - everyone read them and loved them. I only got halfway through them (despite having the box set) because they started to get repetitive, but the Netflix adaptation has given me confidence that things get shaken up. So, as I continue my mission to finish the various incomplete series from my childhood and early teens, now is the time.

I really appreciate how fun and clever these stories are as an adult, as well as how fantastic it is to see children's protagonists celebrated as clever and brave and inventive - while the adults around them are largely unwilling to commit to facing the unfortunate events that befall the Baudelaire orphans. It's reminded me that most of my most beloved childhood books similarly celebrated kids who were clever and curious, who tried hard even when no one else would, and who knew that the relationships with those around them was the most precious thing they had. There should be more children's fiction that tackles dark and scary things like that.

Plot-wise, I vaguely remember all the mysteries from the Netflix series (though I'd have to look up V.F.D. again), but it's fun to see them in original form. I definitely feel like Lemony Snicket is partially to blame for the modern idea of click-baiting though. The bizarre elements - while still truly bizarre even now - do work impressively well with the quirks of the narrator. This was a very special type of series, and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Thorn

Book Title: Thorn

Author: Intisar Khanani

Series: The Dauntless Path #1

Date Started: November 26th  2024

Date Completed: December 12th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I really enjoyed Thorn, though it did lose its momentum towards the end. Because I loved a lot of the creative choices, I've given it four stars but I would say the last section was probably three for me. With that being said, Khanani has put together a beautiful retelling of the Goose Girl fairy tale, and I adored the new elements and world-building she's added.

The complex morality is really the heart of the story, and its strength is clear. This book is about much more than just the exciting romantasy and tricksy politics, and it feels fresh because of it. Khanani went back to the heart of fairy tales that were always supposed to help their audiences cope with situations they felt powerless in. Thorn as a character goes through that cycle herself and the resolution really came out as a nuanced and meaningful finale.

Overall, I found this to be a fun story overall with some really moving set pieces. It felt well-balanced and grounded for a YA fantasy adventure - though I will say, for a book supposedly under 300 pages (I was reading an ARC so approximately), it felt significantly longer. I think there are more retellings in this world but in self-contained stories - which I love! I'm all for stand-alone novels that finish their stories, but continue to explore a promising story world with lots more to offer than a single book offers.

A Dance with Fate

Book Title: A Dance with Fate

Author: Juliet Marillier

Series: Warrior Bards #2

Date Started: November 23rd 2024

Date Completed: November 26th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Historical, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I was in the mood for a quick read that was fun and just the right amount of dramatic in between what's sort of a reading sprint to finish a ton of books before the end of the year - and Juliet Marillier delivered.

The Warrior Bards series didn't start off as one of my favourites of Marillier's but now that the characters are on their paths there's more time for actual plot rather than just herding people into their places. I always love Marillier's balance of mystery and adventure (and the light touch romance that's always embedded within strong friendships). Her books do tend to be pretty plot-driven but with the characters becoming a very recognisable cast, it stays rooted in something special. This series leans more into the fae sub-plots than her others, which sometimes feel unnecessarily squeezed in to keep something relevant for later down the line, but it does always weave back into the central story eventually.

I'm always impressed how somewhat similar events across all of Marillier's books always feel new and exciting. The importance of setting and place for her stories is one of my favourite things to experience each time - especially as the characters tend to move around a lot, it really delivers on the fantastical journey storytelling tradition that informs so much of the stories. Always familiar, but always with something new around the next corner.

Marigold Mind Laundry

Book Title: Marigold Mind Laundry

Author: Jungeun Yun

Date Started: November 19th 2024

Date Completed: November 23rd 2024

Genres: Contemporary, Magicial Realism

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I honestly found the Marigold Mind Laungry a bit disappointing. I made it 53% of the way through before deciding it just wasn't for me. The sprinklings of magical realism could've elevated the story beyond its domestic setting, and the cast of characters could have been structured to build towards a resolution for the burnout everyone was feeling, but it decided to keep its cards pretty isolated for each person.

It feels quite reminiscent of the sub-genre I've seen a lot in Japanese literature where bookstores/libraries solve everyone's Capitalist twenty-first-century fatigue with life, right down the cyclical short-story structure. These sorts of stories always feel repetitive to me, and vary a lot in how emotionally intertwined the cast of characters are. Such nuance is needed for these books to pay off for me, and it just didn't quite catch it anywhere.

The translation does feel quite awkward, so might be the source of the challenge. I speak some Korean and can tell this is a very faithful translation, but creative license is so important to transpose stories into another language, literally and in spirit.

Ten Thousand Stitches

Book Title: Ten Thousand Stitches

Author: Olivia Atwater

Series: Regency Faerie Tales  #2

Date Started: November 17th  2024

Date Completed: November 19th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I usually hate the 'X meets X' style taglines, but I have to say on this occasion that Bridgerton meets Howl's Moving Castle (original Dianna Wynne Jones version) is the perfect description for Olivia Atwater's book - just add a sprinkling of Cinderella and you know exactly what you're getting in for.

Ten Thousand Stitches was cute and fun, with enough of its own quirks to take seriously. Of course the logic of the class justice is half there for the commentary and half just to be convenient for the plot, but it works hard enough to characterise our heroine and ensemble to keep the suspension of disbelief. When you mix in a generous helping of faerie - and clearly a love of embroidery, which I massively enjoyed - it becomes really quite entertaining.

I do feel like the novel felt very short, more like a long fairy tale, which was a bit of a shame as you knew every beat before it really had a chance to happen. We move at such a pace through the whole story that suddenly it's over - and I could have happily read another 100 pages at least!

Nettle

Book Title: Nettle

Author: Bex Hogan

Date Started: November 16th 2024

Date Completed: November 17th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I'm on a bit of a readathon-style mission to review a bunch of NetGalley ARCs before the end of the year, and I'm pleasantly surprised to say it's made finding books like this one really enjoyable. Nettle took a couple of chapters for me to buy into the narration style, but once it got going I found it really fun.

This novel takes all those classic fragments of faerie stories and combines them into an exciting and alluring adventure. It does justice to those elements with the prose heightening everything to their full, magical potential, exploring the human side to being enchanted to dance forever, being tricked into eating faerie food, and finding the loopholes to solve impossible tasks.

While I spotted the twist right from the beginning (it's not particularly subtle), the way the plot threads were tied up was massively satisfying even if you've seen it coming for 200 pages. I would call this a children's book above YA honestly, and I would've adored it as a pre-teen as an introduction to this sub-genre.

Everything You Need is in the Library

Book Title: Everything You Need is in the Library

Author: Michiko Aoyama

Date Started: November 14th 2024

Date Completed: November 16th 2024

Genres: Contemporary

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I realise it's sort of unfair how closely this novel feels to The Cat Who Saved Book, but I also can't see much beyond it. These little chapter stories about how books can mend the fissures between us, nurse our discontent with the modern world, and ease the lost parts of ourselves trying to be happy are always sweet, but not always distinctive.

These sorts of Japanese books read like short story anthologies - which aren't my favourite, but I do like the way they link seemingly separate stories with a common connection that makes us appreciative of the way all our lives intersect with one another. The Japanese temperament to find relief from mindless business and stress is enviably beautiful; one single, simple thing turns the modern world on its head and anchors us in what really matters.

The quiet slowness of this type of story - the soulful devotion to books and the effort of those who care for the roofs over their heads - is always special. They always seems to say, 'it's going to be okay. Keep trying, someone is listening and rooting for you.' Even if it's not the most original one out there, it's still a comfort to read.

Nettle & Bone

Book Title: Nettle & Bone

Author: T. Kingfisher

Date Started: November 5th 2024

Date Completed: November 14th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

If you've been aware of my reviews for a while, you'll know I am a sucker for fairy tales and their retellings. Even if they're nothing new, I still love devouring their quests and riddles - Nettle & Bone is no exception, but sadly wasn't on the highest peaks of the pile.

My main challenge with this book was that there were no stakes, and thus not much momentum. Everything happens rather easily, and Marra (out protagonist) often doesn't have much to do with the resolutions. Even the darker themes of systemic domestic abuse and individual exposition - something that felt like it had the opportunity to nuance the plot - sadly didn't really turn up in the story itself. The whole thing felt rather TV, which was a bit of a shame given the 30-year-old protagonist.

I enjoyed the old-fashioned fairy tale world with its bone dancers, fairy forts, and angry ghosts. The best part was the first few chapters, where we are thrown right into the middle of Marra pursuing the impossible tasks she has been given. It felt creative and atmospheric, but unfortunately once we walked out of the mist (with Marra only completing two of the three tasks, no less), everything became quite straightforward.

Nettle & Bone was a pleasant enough read, but does it offer anything new to the fairy tale retelling craze? Not really.

The Bone Hunters

Book Title: The Bone Hunters

Author: Joanne Burn

Date Started: October 27th  2024

Date Completed: November 5th 2024

Genres: Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Fossils, fossil, fossils, what better thing to do than discover and fawn over them. I've been to Lyme once - very briefly on a film location recce - but reading this book I felt the sharp sea air again, the pebbles shifting underfoot. Staring up at the towering cliffs waiting to topple over themselves and onto you, and the white hot excitements of what exists within the stones surrounding you. It feels folkloric even then, and I suppose it is in a lot of ways, something that is even played with a lot in this novel.

The Bone Hunters is far more grim than its synopsis will have you suspect, but it's not keenly dramatic for the sake of it. Each beat has its place in the plot and in Ada's story, and creeps up a cliff small step by small step until you stand at the peak staring at the blackness below. In only 400 pages, an expansive tale unwinds itself with relationship morphing in new directions neither Ada nor I saw coming. (And some of my favourite representations of female/male friendships I've read in a long time.)

Ada's character was a significant highlight of the novel; the balance between headstrong determination and active awareness of her precarious situation was so well developed her quietness spoke volumes in every chapter. It's rare to find a character (let alone a woman) realistically shown to be confident and loyal to herself but still be fought with worry about her place in the world - yet so many of us are like this.

The Anning inspiration is very clear from the start, but I really like the creative license used to tell a slightly different story while paying homage to the mother of geology. I hadn't heard of Joanne Burn before this Netgalley arc but I will be looking up their books now - as is the magic and privilege of being a book reviewer.

The Colour of Revenge

Book Title: The Colour of Revenge

Author: Cornelia Funke

Series: Inkheart #4

Date Started: October 12th  2024

Date Completed: October 27th 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

Inkheart was always special in a way so few stories achieved - who could possibly top the idea that reading aloud could make the story real? That you could speak your most beloved, most feared, most magical characters, objects, worlds into being? It's so simple, as most good stories are, and I was not alone in being entirely enraptured by it as a child (made all the more precious because my mum read the whole thing to me at the time, too).

But, as much as I loved Mortimer, aspired to be Elinor, and felt very much like Meggie, who didn't really want to see the mythic heroes from the ink world on a true adventure of their own? Who didn't want to meet the Motley Folk, escape danger with the Black Prince, witness the Fire-Dancer's mastery of the flames? There were flickers of it in the original trilogy, but our wish is granted fully here and now. The Colour of Revenges is so immediately immersive - the prose, the imagination, the characters painting you into the story within mere moments and fragments of paragraphs - that the idea that you could speak aloud these characters and they would become real feels just as true as the first time I read about a battered book called Inkheart and the world inside of it.

I feel ambivalent about the continuation of beloved series - I do like letting a story be over at the original destination but, at this point, so many of them have done it and brought with them lovely new stories. There's a moment, towards the end of this book, where two of our most beloved heroes about about stories; where new ones start and old ones end. Literal or philosophical, it's something that could be a materialistic meta media moment it not spoken with feeling. But the enchanted inweave of Inkheart only ever speaks with feeling, even when she speaks through her characters; "In my experience, the story never ends. Only the heroes change."

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.