The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

The Last Graduate picks up exactly where book one left off.  El played the hero at the end of book one and the Scholomance is determined to make her pay dearly.  What is the meaning of her mother's note?  And how will we make it to graduation this year?

Novik does a brilliant job of continuous worldbuilding, even throughout book two.  Book one established the world of the Scholomance, but book two explains many of the logistical questions that book one left us with.  I like to think that the Scholomance could exist in some Night Vale sister universe.

El has softened up a bit.  She's still a brilliant character, but much less angsty and much less sarcastic than the girl we met at the onset of A Deadly Education.  Oh - and much more conflicted now that she doesn't pretend to just absolutely loathe humanity.

Halfway through the book, I was starting to feel as if the story was dragging and thinking that rewriting the book as a series of diary entries might actually be the better approach to how Novik is telling the story.  Then I got to the last 150 pages and I DON'T CARE.  IT'S BRILLIANT.

Like El, we've all been mislead since day one.  And the sudden change of perspective is so incredibly interesting.  Brilliantly, brilliantly done, Novik.  Bravo.

And the ending.  THE ENDING.  Guess I'm committed to reading book 3 now!  Thanks for a fabulous adventure, Novik!

  

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

 Compare a book to Naomi Novik's and Katherine Arden's work and I'm the sucker who is sure to pre-order it.  Add a fabulous review from Alix Harrow and I can't get my hands on the book fast enough.  And the cover is gorgeous.

And I'm 1/4th through the book and just not invested.  It's not for me.  I understand how other people adore this book.  But I'm bailing on this one.  Sorry, world.

Definitely give it a try.  It can't be bad, but I have too many books I'm excited to read to fight my way through one that doesn't hold my interest.

Becoming Leidah by Michelle Grierson

 

I saw the cover.  The description and reviews indicated there were selkies and Norse Mythology.  How could this not be AMAZING?

Welllllll.......  it was fine.

The first third of the book was slow. Slow enough that I wasn't invested.  I almost bailed, but continued being super hopeful that it would improve.   

Then there's the characters..

Maeva and Leidah are beautiful characters that you come to love over the course of the story.

Then there's Pieter. He can go to hell. He's a male character straight from a Barbara Kingsolver novel.  He is everything that is wrong with men.  He "means well" but is super controlling and seems to "know" what's best for everyone.  To put it simply, he's a control freak who can't trust his family.

And the worst of women are in this book. There's a village ready for a witch hunt and a self-serving witch that you hate just as much as Pieter.

The ending was ambiguous, but I think it works and is appropriate to the story.

Also, there's a bit of a Norse mythology learning curve. You'll definitely appreciate the story more if you know some basic Norse mythology.

I really loved the parts of this book that I didn't find completely frustrating.  Read it?  See how you feel about it. 

A Witch's Guide to Escape a Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E Harrow

 Link to short story: https://apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/

I've read this before.  Over and over and over.  It's a short story. that can be read in under ten minutes.  Shouldn't be anything worthy of a review, right?  WRONG.

Harrow has essentially written a beautiful love letter to books, libraries, and the special librarians who hold a special place in our hearts.  It's about the books people NEED, not the ones they or other people think they want.  It's about glorious escapism, coping, and finding and losing your place in the world all at once.

It is a short story.  It's perfect.  There's no reason to not give it the ten minutes of reading time and the mental space it will inevitably fill for the rest of your life.  This story sticks with you.  And rereading it is like catching up with an old friend.  You know it so well, but it's comforting to be aquainted with, once again.

PS: All of Harrow's writings are definitely worth your time.  The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a beautiful story with nods to classics like A Little Princess, Alice in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, His Dark Materials.  The Once and Future Witches is historical fiction at it's finest, featuring women's suffrage and witches.  A proper review of both of these books will probably show up here at some point...

Camelot: A Collection of Original Arthurian Stories by Jane Yolen

 The short version:  Read this book if only to read the Pratchett, Springer, and Costikyan stories - they are just THAT GOOD.  The rest is a mixture of decent and disappointing.

A story by story analysis:
The Changing of the Shrew by Kathleen Kudlinski
-A sweet, forgettable story that would fit right in with The Once and Future King where Merlin transforms Arthur into various animals to teach him about the world.

Wild Man by Diana L Paxson
-Considering that Merlin is my favorite Arthurian character, I had high hopes for this one.  It was fine, but unengaging to the extent that I thought about skipping it (it didn't help knowing that the Pratchett story is up next!)

One and Future by Terry Pratchett
BUY THE BOOK FOR THIS STORY ALONE.  Pratchett is a brilliant, brilliant man.  His Mervin is perfect - quirky and clever.  This story is the best thing I've read in a while.  

Gwenhwyfar by Lynne Pledger
Oh, the crazy Welsh spelling of Gwenever!  A tale of Gwenever before she leaves the abbey for Camelot.  A fair representation of women's role in many Arthurian stories.  A criticism of the male-centric stories we are so used to, in the same vein as The Mists of Avalon (but without all the controversy around it).

Excalibur by Anne E Crompton
A unique glimpse at the story from the Lady of the Lake's perspective.  How the next Lady of the Lake becomes the guardian of Excalibur and learns that she is to give Arthur the sword.

Black Horses for a King by Anne McCaffrey
A well-written story by an excellent author, but not one that was particularly engaging.  It falls short after the previous three stories.

Holly and Ivey by James D Macdonald and Debra Doyle
A fun variation on Sir Gawain and the Green Night.

The Raven by Nancy Springer
Looks like this is the short story where Springer's, I Am Mordred (a fabulous middle grade book) started.  The first paragraph is the same as the novel's and then there are some variations.  

All the Iron of Heaven by Mark W Tiedemann
A decent read, but not memorable.

Amesbury Song by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
For a song that's only two pages of text, I couldn't do it.  Yes, I bailed on a two page poem.

Our Hour of Need by Greg Costikyan
A group of kids on Cape Cod, D&D, JFK's Camelot, and the return of Arthur.  Perfection.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

 "In the Myriadic Year of Our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!- Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth."

Um - WHAT???

Gideon might be the only character who, in some ways, reminds me of El from Novik's A Deadly Education.  She's sarcastic and amazing.  

Muir drops the reader right in the middle of the action.  Gideon is determined to make her escape.  In this escape, you are forced to understand the dynamics and terms of Gideon's world.  It involves space, necromancy, politics, lies, plots, and lots and lots of glorious sarcasm. 

Confession: I generally avoid reading sci-fi.  Not a fan.  I can watch sci-fi - Firefly, Doctor Who, Warehouse 13, I can't recommend them all highly enough.  But I struggle with reading it.  It's not you, sci-fi, it's me.  This book proves that there are exceptions to this rule.

Apparently reading sci-fi is totally okay when there's enough humor (maybe that's why I adored Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and brilliant, refreshingly sarcastic characters.

Also, something about the strange mix of EVERYTHING in this book is appealing.  Sarcasm.  Space.  Necromancy.  Humor.  Necromancy.  Sarcasm.  Death.  Sarcasm.  Murder mystery.  Sarcasm.  Sarcasm.  Skeletons.  Sarcasm. Sarcasm.

About halfway through, this book starts to feel a bit like the movie, Clue.  And it's great.


While my go-to read is typically something fantastic and beautifully written, this book is such a refreshing read.

And look at the cover!!!  

Upcoming Reads (in no particular order)

Gideon the Ninth by Muir (for book club: https://carterhaughschool.com/the-carterhaugh-book-club/)
The Last Graduate by Novik (#NetGalley ARC)
The Harp of Kings by Marillier
Camelot: A Collection of Original Arthurian Stories by Yolen

New releases arriving in today's mail:
The Hidden Palace by Wecker (the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni)
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Reid

New-ish releases:
Half Sick of Shadows by Sebastian (#botm)
Sistersong by Holland