Category: Book reviews

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson. 5/5.
This is a elegant, whimsical, history-rich, and satisfying novel of a young concubine and her best friend, a magical mapmaker, who escape the court of their sultan and the Inquisition with the help of a crafty djinn. The characters are well-drawn and complex, and the world–of courts, travelers, cities, seas, and islands–Wilson creates is a detailed and full of nuance and depth. There are surprises and unforeseen twists, and the ending is also a beginning that will keep readers thinking about the book for a long time.

Toil & Trouble by Tess Sharpe; Jessica Spotswood. 5/5.
This is a great collection of stories about witches, and not just the usual old-white-lady-doing-evil-deeds kind. The witches in Toil and Trouble are children, widows, teenagers, students, skateboarders, artists, city-dwellers, priestesses, farmers, and more, and their magics are as unique and interesting and fresh as they are. I loved this and am recommending it to anyone ages about 8 and up.

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. 5/5.
A luminous, beguiling, charming book. Virgil Wander drives his car off a cliff in his small Midwestern town; saved by am acquaintance, his new life becomes one of wonder and discovery. Virgil’s brush with death leaves him with missing adjectives but new people in his life, including the widow, son, and father of the town’s most famous resident, who vanished a dozen years before; the town’s celebrity, an unsettling and manipulative man; and others. The entire novel is like a poem, something to be read and re-read and savored.

Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar. 5/5.
Using the Kabbalah’s concept of sefirot, or mystical and creative forces that change the world, as a framework, Tidhar creates multiple tantalizing and richly detailed worlds through which his characters slip. Following three characters who have slipped between various worlds, in which a Jewish homeland has been established in differing places and through differing means, the novel is both a mystery and a meditation on the appeal of “what-ifs” and “might-have-beens” to readers, writers, and politicians.

Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire. 5/5.
This series just gets better and better. In this newest installment, faerie knight October Daye deals with the estrangement of her lover, the kidnap of her daughter (yes, again, but wait–it’s actually ok and not totally trite!), and learning some new family history. Although the kidnapping of Gillian, Daye’s daughter, was a previous plot point, in this episode the kidnap leads to changes in Daye’s world that I never expected and that work remarkably well with the series universe and previous plotlines. We also get introduced to a new character who begins as a threat and becomes…a possible future ally, and we get lots of the Luidaeg, who is one of the best characters in any fantasy world.

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. 5/5
An outstanding fantasy novella set in an intriguing alternate-world New Orleans, where politics, orisha, street smarts, and airships mix. The characters are written well enough to grow beyond their generic trappings (the unbelievably talented street kid, the airship captain with an exciting and mysterious past) and become compelling. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author and about these characters and this world.

Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys. 4/5
Ruthanna Emrys’s *Deep Roots* is the smart and nuanced sequel to her *Winter Tide*. She does a brilliant job of turning Lovecraft’s Mythos on its head through beautiful writing, great character development, and thoughtful engagement with the period.

Guardian by A. J. Hartley. 5/5.
Guardian is the third installment in A. J. Hartley’s outstanding series that began with Steeplejack. Guardian returns readers to the city-state Bar-Selehm, where protagonist Anglet Sutonga, a smart and tactically brilliant young woman, finds herself grappling with a fascist take-over of the government. Able to climb high above the city and gather information from a variety of sources on the ground, Ang works to protect her community, political leaders, and friends. Hartley’s writing is clear and exciting, and often eloquent, a rare thing in thrillers. While Guardian will get marketed as “YA,” in part for its obvious (but never pedantic) messages about racism, sexism, politics, voting, and resistance in our own world, the book–and the entire, beautifully-crafted series–should appeal to readers of all ages. Quite honestly, I’d like to put this series in the hands of everyone in the US capable of reading it.

Selling Dead People’s Things by Duane Scott Cerny. 5/5.
An engaging, witty, and often poignant memoir of life in the selling business. Cerny began dealing in desired goods at a young age, thanks to his dad’s connections to Playboy magazine, and from there developed the famous BAM in Chicago, an antiques shop full of wonders and delights, particularly mid-century modern furniture. Cerny tells tales of pieces he bought and sold, pieces he couldn’t buy, and pieces he couldn’t wait to get rid of–the later category including a variety of haunted objects.

My only quarrel with the book is the cover design. I’d give this book to everyone I know who’s ever been interested in collecting, old stuff, or Chicago history, but the gruesome cover will be a turn off to a lot of potential readers.

Los Romeros by Walter Aaron Clark. 1/5.
I had hoped, given the author’s status as a scholar, that this would be a thoughtful and in-depth study of Los Romeros, their playing and commissioning, and their role in the changing American musical landscape of the mid-twentieth century. I was disappointed. The book is a collection of anecdotes and non-sequiturs, accompanied by long lists (every fruit i the village market, etc.). The writing is florid and uncritical, and surprisingly superficial. The author uses ableist language and, despite a note in the preface about how he treats the term “Gypsy,” still engages in stereotypes about the Roma. Fans who are interested in trivia about the Romeros may enjoy this, but I expect more from a scholarly author publishing with a university press.