The Silver Tracks

 Book Title: The Silver Tracks

Author: Cornelia Funke

Series: Reckless #4

Date Started: November 7th 2021

Date Completed: November 13th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Mystery

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

There's something truly magical about childhood favourites following you into your adult years and maturing alongside you. Okay, I was maybe a teenager when Reckless first came out, but having grown up with Inkheart, Dragon Rider, The Thief Lord, Igraine the Brave, to find the same magic and wonder in Funke's newer works as an adult is really precious.

Funke's Mirrorworld, with its fairytale versions of our world, teeming with mythical creatures and folkloric dangers, will always be so dearly beloved to me. Funke (amongst others like Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, Holly Black & Tony Diterlizzi) is no small part of the reason I grew up to make fairytales myself (albeit onscreen), and the Reckless series might just be the one that best explains why. The treasures that Jacob and Fox hunt for aren't just shiny; they grant desires and access over obstacles. Trinkets that freeze a perfect moment forever, that let you know where your loved ones are at all times, that allow you to transform into something that lets you freely run around in the night. These books distil why fairytales are so alluring to us, and why they are made to begin with; to allow us to access things the real world won't let us. The books are in no way meta about this, but reading them reminds me why fairytales are such a fabulous form of escapism and storytelling - and that's the best way to be pay homage to an inspiration or source text.

The Silver Tracks really puts the angle of Jacob and Fox's journey in a new direction, and starts to give shape to what I imagine will be the finale of the series. That being said, I love that Funke balances the more mature developments in their lives with the excitement of treasure hunting and adventure. We still explore the Mirrorworld and get to see plenty of trouble, which I feel like sometimes peters out in a lot of Young Adult literature when two protagonists become a couple. Funke knows there's is far more exciting and important things for them to overcome than angsty squabbles.

As this series has developed, it's been so cool that we've kept in contact with all these characters from across the books, not just as references but as pivotal characters. All these intersecting lives add to the vibrancy and realness of the story; I definitely wasn't expecting Clara to keep showing up after the first book, and the network of spies and treasure hunters Jacob and Fox have at their disposal comes in very useful. On top of that, we also get to meet new people as well - and I'm just saying that so that I can mention how fast Hideo become one of my absolute favourite characters.

The Reckless/Mirrorworld series is so vivid and lush and imaginative and wonderful. If Inkheart was a love letter to fairytales, then this series is the epic poem it deserves (did you spot the Inkheart reference in the book?). The fact that The Silver Tracks developed the Jacob and Fox's story as adults, gave us more wonder and beauty, and even let us see the Mirrorworld equivalents of Korea and Japan just had gushing the whole time. I desperately hope it doesn't take another six years for the next one, but if it means a story like this I'll wait two decades.

The Bone Shard Emperor

 Book Title: The Bone Shard Emperor

Author: Andrew Stewart

Series: The Drowning Empire #2

Date Started: October 18th 2021

Date Completed: November 7th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery, Romance

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

The Drowning Empire (love that new series title) has quickly become one of my favourite ever series thanks to its rich world-building, complex mysteries, tricky politics, compelling characters and stunning prose. It's one of those books that makes you desperately excited to devour, but then welcomes you into its universe so well that you slow down completely unconsciously just to be immersed in every moment.

I loved that The Bone Shard Emperor mixed up the structure from the first book a little bit. If you didn't know they were written by the same person you would definitely be able to tell with Stewart's distinctive ability to play on character and place, but there's a new way of exploring these characters and their vices in this novel. Each plot line intersects a lot more than in the first book as well, but each person very much remains the protagonist in their perspective which is so cleverly done.

Once again, the mysteries are found out slowly by picking up clues that the reader gathers alongside the characters, and yet more are laid out for the next (last?) instalment. I loved that The Bone Shard Emperor followed the shock waves of the first book's events but introduced new politics and doom for Lin to handle. While absolutely telling its own story arc in one book, the plot reaches across into the past and future as well, creating a sense that the story we are reading is a sprawling epic that still has plenty to surprise us with.

As mentioned in my review of The Bone Shard Daughter, these books are wonderful, varied, complex casts of characters. From emperors to smugglers, gutter orphans to rebels; I adore having a protagonist who is a magical scholar and (unwillingly) a politician, as well as side-characters who are mothers, warriors and conquerers. There is no tokenism and no gratuitous titles: these are who these characters are and strongly influence the way they impact the world. It's amazing how steadfast Stewart is able to keep them in their characterisation, never flinching from making things difficult for our beloved cast because, let's face it, that's exactly what the person would do.

I wish Andrea Stewart all the best in writing the next one because I am desperate for it. I'm so grateful to have been given both The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor for review, although I'm now aware I'm going to have to wait even longer for the third instalment in the series and I don't know if I can take it.

Girls of Paper and Fire

Book Title: Girls of Paper and Fire

Author: Natasha Ngan

Series: Girls of Paper and Fire #1

Date Started: September 26th 2021

Date Completed: October 18th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Two Star

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

I didn't finish Girls of Paper and Fire, despite the rave reviews I've come across from other people, and in spite of attempting to persevere for nearly a month. Ultimately, I just wasn't getting anything out of reading it, and life's too short to read books you aren't enjoying.

It's violent and dark and really grim honestly, but then the characters are so YA and insubstantial about it all. I'm all for making these issues accessible but this book tackles so many challenging topics and Lei's just standing there like 'ah, I can't wait for the year to be over so I can visit my dad.' It just feels like it bounces from drowning you in how horrific these girls' experiences is to trivialising it into a teenage romance. Yes, I see Lei is supposed to be naïve (I mean, I also question how naïve she would be growing up in the circumstances she did), but I read halfway through this book and she was still being plain old dumb when I gave up.

I appreciate slow burning plots, but halfway through and the book has mainly consisted of Lei being terribly persecuted a couple of times, and then Mean Girls. I can't even comment on the LGBT+ aspect because Lei had only just noticed she thinks one of the other girls is pretty - which is fine, but when added to the fact nothing else has happened and I just don't have the investment to carry on.

At the end of the day, when the themes are actually dealt with I think they're dealt with well. The detail and world building is interesting, but Lei ruined it for me in imitating a 2013 copy-and-pasted YA heroine. Accessibility and expanding themes tackled for younger audiences is important, but making it feel trivial in comparison to the 'fun' plot isn't the best way to do it. (Disclaimer: I know lots of people really love this book and if it was a cathartic and/or enjoyable experience for you that's awesome. I just unfortunately didn't have that experience.)

Jade Fire Gold

 Book Title: Jade Fire Gold

Author: June C.L. Tan

Date Started: August 31st 2021

Date Completed: September 25th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I have to say, I was actually really disappointed with Jade Fire Gold. It felt samey in its plot and was rather limited in its exploration of the mythical background. I didn't really feel the chemistry between any of the characters and felt like there was a lot of unused potential by the end.

The story starts off well enough (samey, like I said) but this pivotal quest for the sword only takes place right at the end and is over pretty quickly. At the centre of it, our protagonist (co-protagonist?) Ahn is actually really passive, and everything happens so easily for her. The book is a lot of talking about how important doing something is, and then the group immediately succeed in doing it, with Ahn taking very little part in the actual realisation of the goal.

Our other co-protagonist, Altan, begins as the typical brooding warrior but becomes a complete soppy mess once he falls for Ahn. I felt he, in general, wasn't very consistent, including at the end when he's suddenly mischievous and friendly because he gets what he wants - I just couldn't really buy into it.

I was umming and ahhing as to whether to include this in my review because it's probably on me for misunderstanding, but it's quite amusing - I was convinced for ages that Ahn was the lost sister Altan kept going on about. I mean, they made a really big deal about Altan's sister being dead, to the point it was obvious she wasn't, and that she'd disappeared in the desert - exactly where Ahn remembers emerging from. It made everything that come afterwards between them really quite awkward and just sort of disappeared from the narrative until I got (thankfully) proven wrong at the end. It may have a big part in why I wasn't totally involved with the narrative.

Jade Fire Gold is a perfectly readable, reasonably enjoyable book, but I've read other very similar stories that pull it off better - I always feel mean when that's my main criticism of a book, but I do think it's valid.

Medusa

 Book Title: Medusa

Author: Jessie Burton

Date Started: August 29th 2021

Date Completed: August 31st 2021

Genres: Historical, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Jessie Burton has written some fantastic stories, and she's back with a very nice reimagining of the story of Medusa, retelling the myth and its contexts as well as rewriting its story for contemporary audiences. And the book is all the more moving for its utterly stunning illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill.

At first, I found the language to be a little too flowery, to the point of me not totally understanding what was being said, but this eases after the initial passages and Burton leaps into a story reminiscent of a fairy tale book, but spinning in the Greek tragedy and a whole host of exploration into misogyny, toxic masculinity and rape culture.

It's such a moving story, it's strange that Medusa's full tale isn't retold more. Though that is largely due to the fact that Medusa's story seems pretty definitive in the collective canon everyone grows up with; she is a monster Perseus is sent to kill. Simple as that. But Medusa is a name, not a creature species, and she was once a normal girl pursued by a god (which sums up maybe half of classical female characters). It's very rich source material and Burton gets really creative with it, repainting the picture to before Perseus was even a hero, and letting Medusa reclaim it herself.

The book is rather short, but the perfect length to tell this story. It is also perfectly suited to its artwork, and I can't help but feel it's the mature storybook retelling a timeless piece of folklore/mythology I would've loved to add to my collection as a child - and still do as an adult. I'm looking forward to buying myself the physical copy when it releases, and I hope the illustrations are available as prints too.

Muse of Nightmares

 Book Title: Muse of Nightmares

Author: Laini Taylor

Series: Strange the Dreamer #2

Date Started: August 8th 2021

Date Completed: August 28th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I was unsatisfied with Strange the Dreamer a couple of years ago, with its stunningly told tale that suddenly stopped short at its cliffhanger (which only came across to me as unfinished) ending. I avoided reading this book for a while, scared I wouldn't fall in love with it like I had so many times with Laini Taylor's books in the past. Ultimately, I had similar problems with Muse of Nightmares, where the story being told changed about four-time, but I did also love reading it regardless.

The first half is pretty slow, taking off immediately after the last book and staying on that track of a while until it decides to twist and change the game. Once that happens, even though it threw me as a reader right out of the story for a moment, things start to speed up and Taylor finds her stride once again. The last 40% is amazing, while things finally falling into place, and I didn't want to put the book down.

Where Strange the Dreamer was about Lazlo and his story, Muse of Nightmares (as the title would suggest) is Sarai's. Perhaps the biggest shame for me was the fact that Lazlo and Sarai kind of mushed into soppy lovers and lost their own glares. Characters often so change when they become part of a couple, but it felt like these two weren't really present in the scenes the other person wasn't also in, which was absolutely not the case in the first book. I really like these two, and I liked the ide of them together, it just... didn't quite work as well as I was hoping.

While this review has a lot of my reservations about the book, I did still give it four stars. That's because Laini Taylor is such a clever, meticulous, confident writer. The thematic arcs and scene transitions, the imagery and symbols, the imagination, even the smallest details carried through half a book before becoming key to the story are all fragments of a storyteller in their prime. She's one of the best writers out there. The structure has been shaky for in this duology but seriously, I am repeatedly overwhelmed with wonder when reading her books.

Mexican Gothic

 Book Title: Mexican Gothic

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Date Started: July 28th 2021

Date Completed: August 7th 2021

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Mexican Gothic was a lot of fun. Overflowing with Del Toro vibes (Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth, even a little The Devil's Backbone), it's tense and atmospheric, clearly a love letter to classical gothic tales. But Moreno-Garcia adds a brilliant twist of setting the story in 1950s Mexico and spinning the genre on its head for a more modern audience.

As its namesake suggests, this book is a perfect gothic tale at the start, though it becomes more horror towards the end. The tone, that we may have been pretty familiar with, turns slightly weird as it spins on the classic genre into slightly more modern sensibilities for its reveal and resolution. While this wasn't unsatisfying, I can't help but feel some tonal notes could've been adapted from the gothic horror and incorporated as well. For example, I wish we'd got a bit more ghosty action. Most of the plot is Noemí arguing with the family her cousin has been swept away to and whom she is trying to her rescue from. The ghost bits are fantastic, but few and far between in the end.

That being said, the story instead focuses on Noemí herself more than necessarily the mystery. And Noemí rises to the challenge; she's the perfect balance of fierce, glamorous and smart. The rest of the characters are sometimes fitted a little too conveniently around her to create tension for her temperament, but it's still enjoyable to watch a female character as fashionable and fascinating stand up to bullies.

I think where this book falls short is the fact we just don't get to sink our teeth into the mystery as much as I (and others, from what I've read) would've liked. It's a fascinating and compelling idea and the moments of surrealism and ghosty terror as great, but they're crowded in amongst arguments and wandering around and dialogue upon dialogue. All of it is soundly structured and realised, I just wanted more.